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COPYRIGHT DEPOSE 



THE FRAGMENTS OF 
EMPEDOCLES 



TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE 
BY 

WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD, Ph. D. 

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 



CHICAGO 
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 

LONDON AGENTS 
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO. , LTD. 

1908 






BRESSl 

Uopyriant tntry i; 

CUSS Ot- ' 

j 



Empedocles . . , 
Whom that three-cornered isle of all the lands 

Bore on her coasts which, though for much she seem 

The mighty and the wondrous isle, . . . hath ne'er 
Possessed within her aught of more renown, 
Nor aught more holy, wonderful, and dear 
Than this true man. Nay, ever so far and pure 
The lofty music of his breast divine 
Lifts up its voice and tells of glories found 
That scarce he seems of human stock create. 

Lucretius, I. 716 ff. 



COPYRIGHT BY 

THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO. 

1908 



DEDICATION. 
(To W. R. N.) 

In my last winter by Atlantic seas, 

How often, when the long day's task was through, 

I found, in nights of friendliness with you, 

The quiet corner of the scholar's ease ; 

While you explored the Orphic liturgies, 

Or old Pythagoras' mystic One and Two, 

Or heartened me with Plato's larger view, 

Or the world-epic of Empedocles: 

It cost you little ; but such things as these, 
When man goes inland, following his star — \ 
When man goes inland where the strangers are — 
Build him a house of goodly memories : 
So take this book in token, and rejoice 
That I am richer having heard your voice. 

W. E. L. 
Madison. Wis., Dec. 1906. 



% 



PREFACE. 

THIS translation was made at the suggestion of my 
friend, Dr. W. R. Newbold, Professor of Greek Phi- 
losophy at the University of Pennsylvania, in the hope of 
interesting here and there a student of thought or a lover 
of poetry. The introduction and notes are intended merely 
to illustrate the text: they touch only incidentally on the 
doxographical material and give thus by no means a com- 
plete account of all it is possible to know about Empedocles's 
philosophy. My indebtedness to the critics is frequently 
attested in the references; but I have in all points tried to 
exercise an independent judgment. Most citations from 
works not accessible in English are given in translation. 

It is a genuine pleasure to acknowledge my special obli- 
gations to Professor Newbold and to Professor E. B. Mc- 
Gilvary of the philosophical department at Wisconsin for 
their kindness in reading the manuscript and adding several 
valuable suggestions. I am indebted to Dr. J. R. Blackman 
of the department of physiology at the University of Wis- 
consin for medical references. 

William Ellery Leonard. 
Madison, Wis., May 14, 1907. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Preface v 

Empedocles : The Man, the Philosopher, the Poet. 

Life I 

Personality 2 

Works 3 

History of the Text 3 

Translations 4 

The Ideas of Empedocles 4 

The Poetry of Empedocles 9 

Bibliography 13 

On Nature. 

To his Friend 15 

Limitations of Knowledge 15 

The Elements 17 

Ex Nihilo Nihil 19 

The Plenum 19 

Our Elements Immortal 20 

Love and Hate., the Everlasting 20 

The Cosmic Process 20 

Love and Hate in the Organic World 23 

From the Elements is All We See 24 

Similia Similibus 25 

An Analogy 26 

The Speculative Thinker 27 

An Aphorism 2.^ 

The Law of the Elements 28 

The Sphere 29 

Physical Analogies 30 

The Conquest of Love 31 

Similia Similibus 32 

The World as It Now Is 33 

Earth and Air not Illimitable ZZ 



viii THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

MOB 

Sun and Moon 33 

The Darkling Night 35 

Wind and Rain. 35 

Fire 35 

The Volcano 35 

Air 35 

Things Passing Strange 36 

Strange Creatures of Olden Times 36 

The Process of Human Generation To-day 38 

On Animals and Plants 39 

Our Eyes 42 

Similia Similibus 44 

The Black River Bottoms 44 

Eyes 45 

Bones 45 

Blood and Flesh 45 

The Ear 46 

The Rushing Blood and the Clepsydra 46 

Scent 48 

On the Psychic Life 49 

Dominion 51 

The Purifications. 

The Healer and Prophet 53 

Expiation and Metempsychosis 54 

This Earth of Ours 56 

This Sky-Roofed World 56 

This Vale of Tears 56 

The Changing Forms 58 

The Golden Age 58 

The Sage 59 

Those Days 60 

The Divine 60 

Animal Sacrifice 62 

Taboos 63 

Sin 63 

The Progression of Rebirth 64 

Last Echoes of a Song Half Lost 65 

Notes 67 



EMPEDOCLES: THE MAN, THE PHILOS- 
OPHER, THE POET. 

LIFE. 

THE philosopher Empedocles, according to the 
common tradition of antiquity, was born at 
Agrigentum in Sicily, and flourished just before 
the Peloponnesian war, the contemporary of the 
great Athenians about Pericles. He might have 
heard the Prometheus in the theatre of Dionysus 
and have talked with Euripides in the Agora; or 
have seen with Phidias the bright Pallas Athene on 
the Acropolis ; or have listened in the groves beyond 
the city while Anaxagoras unfolded to him those 
half-spiritual guesses at the nature of the universe, 
so different from his own. He might: but the de- 
tails of his life are all too imperfectly recorded. The 
brief references in other philosophers and the vita 
of Diogenes Laertius contain much that is contra- 
dictory or legendary. Though apparently of a 
wealthy and conservative family, he took the lead 
among his fellow citizens against the encroach- 
ments of the aristocracy; but, as it seems, falling 
at last from popular favor, he left Agrigentum 
and died in the Peloponnesus — his famous leap into 
Mount Aetna being as mythical as his reputed 



2 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

translation after a sacrificial meal .... But time 
restores the exiles: Florence at last set the image 
of Dante before the gates of Santa Croce; and 
now, after two thousand years, the hardy demo- 
crats of Agrigentum begin to cherish (so I have 
read) the honest memory of Empedocles with that 
of Mazzini and Garibaldi. 

PERSONALITY. 

The personality of this old Mediterranean Greek 
must have been impressive. He was not only the 
statesman and philosopher, but the poet. And ego- 
tistic, melancholy, eloquent 1 soul that he was, he 
seems to have considered himself above all as the 
wonder-worker and the hierophant, in purple vest 
and golden girdle, 

"Crowned both with fillets and with flowering wreaths;" 

and he tells us of his triumphal passage through the 
Sicilian cities, how throngs of his men and women 
accompanied him along the road, how from house 
and alley thousands of the fearful and the sick 
crowded upon him and besought oracles or healing 
words. And stories have come down to us of his 
wonderful deeds, as the waking of a woman from a 
long trance and the quite plausible cure of a mad- 
man by music. Some traces of this imposing figure, 
with elements frankly drawn from legends not here 
mentioned appear in Arnold's poem. 

'From Empedocles, indeed, according to Aristotle, the study of 
rhetoric got its first impulse. Cf. Diels's Gorgias und Empedocles in 
Sitzungsberichte d. K. P. Akademie d. Wissenschaften, 1884. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 



WORKS. 

Of the many works, imputed to Empedocles by 
antiquity, presumably only two are genuine, the 
poems On Nature and the Purifications; and of 
these we possess but the fragments preserved in the 
citations of philosopher and doxographer from Ar- 
istotle to Simplicius, which, though but a small part 
of the whole, are much more numerous and com- 
prehensive than those of either Xenophanes or Par- 
menides. It is impossible to determine when the 
poems were lost: they were read doubtless by Lu- 
cretius and Cicero, possibly as late as the sixth 
century by Simplicius, who at least quotes from the 
On Nature at length. 2 



HISTORY OF THE TEXT. 

The fragments were imperfectly collected late in 
the Renaissance, as far as I have been able to deter- 
mine, first by the great German Xylander, who 
translated them into Latin. Stephanus published 
his Empedoclis Fragmenta at Paris in 1573. But 
not till the nineteenth century did they get the at- 
tention they deserve, in the editions of Sturz ( 1805) 
Karsten ( 1838), Stein ( 1852), and Mullach ( i860), 
which show, however, confusing diversities in the 
readings as well as in the general arrangement. 
Each except Stein's is accompanied by Latin trans- 

H'he writings of Democritus are conjectured to have been lost 
between the third and fifth centuries. 



4 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

lation 3 and notes. But our best text is unquestion- 
ably that of Hermann Diels of Berlin, first pub- 
lished in 1901 in his Poetarum Philosophorum 
Fragmenta, and subsequently (1906), with a few 
slight changes and additions, in his Fragmente der 
Vorsokratiker. 

TRANSLATIONS. 

As said above, there are several translations into 
Latin ; all that I have seen being in prose, and some 
rather loose for the work of distinguished scholars. 
The late P. Tannery gives a literal French trans- 
lation in his work on Hellenic Science, Diels in his 
Fragmente one in German, Bodrero in his 77 Prin- 
ciple) one in Italian, and Burnet and Fairbanks in 
their works on early Greek philosophy literal Eng- 
lish translations, of which the former's is the better. 
There is one in German hexameters from the ear- 
lier decades of the last century; and a few brief 
selections in the English hexameters of W. C. Law- 
ton may be found in Warner's Library of the 
World's Best Literature. The works of Frere and 
of Symonds contain specimen renderings, the form- 
er's in verse, the latter's in prose. Probably Diels 
does most justice to the meaning of Empedocles; 
none assuredly does any kind of justice to his poetry. 

THE IDEAS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

We can reconstruct something of Empedocles's 
system out of the fragments themselves and out of 

'I have not seen the original of Sturz's edition; but I gather 
from references in my reading that it contains a translation. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 5 

the allusions in the ancients; yet our knowledge is 
by no means precise, and even from the earliest 
times has there been diversity of interpretation. 
Various problems are discussed, as they come up, 
in the Notes, but a brief survey of what seems to be 
his thought as a whole, even at the risk of some 
repetition, may help the general reader to get his 
bearings. 

The philosophy of the On Nature may be con- 
sidered as a union of the Eleatic doctrine of Being 
with that of the Heraclitic Becoming, albeit the 
Sicilian is more the natural scientist than the dia- 
lectician, more the Spencer than the Hegel of his 
times. With Parmenides he denies that the aught 
can come from or return to the naught ; with Hera- 
clitus he affirms the principle of development. There 
is no real creation or annihilation in this universal 
round of things ; but an eternal mixing and unmix- 
ing, due to two eternal powers, Love and Hate, of 
one world-stuff in its sum unalterable and eternal. 
There is something in the conception suggestive of 
the chemistry of later times. To the water of 
Thales, the air of Anaximenes, and the fire of 
Heraclitus he adds earth, and declares them as all 
alike primeval, the promise and the potency of the 
universe, 

"The fourfold root of all things." 

These are the celebrated "four elements" of later 
philosophy and magic. In the beginning, if we 
may so speak of a vision which seems to transcend 



6 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

time, these four, held together by the uniting bond 
of Love, rested, each separated and unmixed, beside 
one another in the shape of a perfect sphere, which 
by the entrance of Hate was gradually broken up 
to develop at last into the world and the individual 
things, 

"Knit in all forms and wonderful to see." 

But the complete mastery of Hate, means the com- 
plete dissipation and destruction of things as such, 
until Love, winning the upper hand, begins to unite 
and form another world of life and beauty, which 
ends in the still and lifeless sphere of old, again 

"exultant in surrounding solitude." 

Whereupon, in the same way, new world-periods 
arise, and in continual interchange follow one an- 
other forever, like the secular aeons of the nebular 
hypothesis of to-day. 

Moreover, Empedocles tells us of a mysterious 
vortex, the origin of which he may have explained 
in some lost portion of his poem, a whirling mass, 
like the nebula in Orion or the original of our solar 
system, that seems to be the first stage in the world- 
process after the motionless harmony of the sphere. 
Out of this came the elements one by one : first, air, 
which, condensing or thickening, encompassed the 
rest in the form of a globe or, as some maintain, of 
an egg; then fire, which took the upper space, and 
crowded air beneath her. And thus arose two 
hemispheres, together forming the hollow vault of 
the terrestrial heaven above and below us, the 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 7 

bright entirely of fire, the dark of air, sprinkled 
with the patches of fire we call stars. And, because 
in unstable equilibrium, or because bearing still 
something of the swift motion of the vortex, or be- 
cause of fire's intrinsic push and pressure — for Em- 
pedocles's physics are here particularly obscure — 
this vault begins to revolve: and behold the morn- 
ing and the evening of the first day; for this revo- 
lution of the vault is, he tells us, the cause of day 
and night. 

Out of the other elements came the earth, prob- 
ably something warm and slimy, without form and 
void. It too was involved in the whirl of things; 
and the same force which expels the water from a 
sponge, when swung round and round in a boy's 
hand, worked within her, and the moist spurted 
forth and its evaporation filled the under spaces of 
air, and the dry land appeared. And the everlast- 
ing Law made two great lights, for signs and sea- 
sons, and for days and years, the greater light to 
rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night ; 
and it made the stars also. 

The development of organic life, in which the 
interest of Empedocles chiefly centers, took place, 
as we have seen, in the period of the conflict of Love 
and Hate, through the unceasing mixing and sepa- 
ration of the four elements. Furthermore, the 
quantitative differences of the combinations pro- 
duced qualitative differences of sensible properties. 
First the plants, conceived as endowed with feeling, 
sprang up, germinations out of earth. Then ani- 



8 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

mals arose piecemeal — he tells us in one passage — 
heads, arms, eyes, roaming ghastly through space, 
the chance unions of which resulted in grotesque 
shapes until joined in fit number and proportion, 
they developed into the organisms we see about us. 
In another passage we hear how first rose mere 
lumps of earth 

"with rude impress," 

but he is probably speaking of two separate periods 
of creation. Empedocles was a crude evolutionist. 4 

His theory of the attraction of like for like, so 
suggestive of the chemical affinities of modern sci- 
ence; his theory of perception, the earliest recog- 
nition, with the possible exception of Alcmaon of 
Croton, of the subjective element in man's experi- 
ence with the outer world; and his affirmation of 
the consciousness of matter, in company with so 
many later materialists, even down to Haeckel, who 
puts the soul in the atom, are, perhaps, for our pur- 
poses sufficiently explained in the notes. 

Behind all the absurdities of the system of Em- 
pedocles, we recognize the keen observation, in- 
sight, and generalizing power of a profound mind, 
which, in our day with our resources of knowledge, 
would have been in the forefront of the world's seek- 
ers after that Reality which even the last and the 
greatest seek with a success too humble to warrant 
much smiling at those gone before. 

* Some portions of the above paragraphs are translated and con- 
densed from Zeller, some others from Vorlander, Geschichte der 
Philosophie, I. Band, Leipsic, 1903. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 9 

THE POETRY OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Empedocles and his forerunner Parmenides were 
the only Greek philosophers who wrote down their 
systems in verse; for Heraclitus had written in 
crabbed prose, and Xenophanes was more poet- 
satirist than poet-philosopher. Lucretius, the poet- 
ical disciple of Empedocles (though not in the same 
degree that he was the philosophic disciple of Epi- 
curus), is in this their only successor. Contempo- 
rary reflective satire and the metrical forms of the 
Orphics may, as Burnet conjectures, have sug- 
gested the innovation; but both Parmenides and 
Empedocles were poets by nature, and I see no rea- 
son why they should not naturally and spontane- 
ously have chosen the poet's splendid privilege of 
verse for their thought. 

The Ionic dialect of Empedocles's hexameters, 
and occasionally even his phrase, is Homeric; but 
in mood and manner, as sometimes in philosophic 
terminology, he recalls the Eleatic. Parmenides 
had written : 

"And thou shalt know the Source etherial, 
And all the starry signs along the sky, 
And the resplendent works of that clear lamp 
Of glowing sun, and whence they all arose. 
Likewise of wandering works of round-eyed moon 
Shalt thou yet learn and of her source ; and then 
Shalt thou know too the heavens that close us round — 
Both whence they sprang and how Fate leading them 
Bound fast to keep the limits of the stars. .. . 
How earth and sun and moon and common sky, 
The Milky Way, Olympos outermost, 
And burning might of stars made haste to be*"* 

"Parmenides, fr. 10, n, Diels, FV. 



10 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

And it is as if he were addressing the Agrigen- 
tine and bequeathing him his spiritual heritage; 
and we might add thereto those verses of another 
poet of more familiar times : 

"And thou shalt write a song like mine, and yet 
Much more than mine, as thou art more than I." 

For, although Empedocles has left us no pas- 
sage of the gorgeous imagination of Parmenides's 
proem, 6 the linroi rat fte <£epov<w, his fragments as 
a whole seem much more worth while. 

He was true poet. There is first the grandeur 
of his conception. Its untruth for the intellect of 
to-day should not blind us to its truth and power 
for the imagination, the same yesterday, to-day and 
perhaps forever. The Ptolemaic astronomy of Par- 
adise Lost is as real to the student of Milton as the 
Copernican to the student of Laplace, and an essen- 
tial element in the poem. The nine circles of the 
subterranean Abyss lose none of their impressive- 
ness for us because we know more of geology than 
the author qf the Inferno. The imagination can 
glory in the cross of Christ, towering over the 
wrecks of time, long after the intellect has settled 
with the dogmas of orthodoxy. And an idea may 
be imposing even for the intellect where the intel- 
lect repudiates its validity. A stupendous error 
like the Hegelian logic of history, even the pseudo- 
science of Goethe's vertebral theory of the skull, 
that yet suggests the great principle of morpholog- 

"Diels, FV. Arnold has borrowed from it one of the best lines 
of Empedocles on Aetna: 

"Ye sun-born Virgins ! on the road of truth." — 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. II 

ical and functional metamorphosis, argues greater 
things for the mind of man than any truth, however 
ingeniously discovered, in the world of petty facts. 
And the response of the soul is a poetic response, 
the thrill and the enthusiasm before the large idea. 
Our poet's conception is impressive to imagination 
and to intellect : we stand with him amid the awful 
silence of the primeval Sphere that yet exults in 
surrounding solitude; but out of the darkness and 
the abyss there comes a sound : one by one do quake 
the limbs of God; the powers of life and death are 
at work; Love and Hate contend in the bosom of 
nature as in the bosom of man ; we sweep on in fire 
and rain and down the 

"awful heights of Air;" 

amid the monstrous shapes, the arms, the heads, the 
glaring eyes, in space, and at last we are in the 
habitable world, this shaggy earth, this sky-roofed 
cave of the fruitful vine and olive, of the multi- 
tudinous tribes of hairy beasts, and of men and 
women, — all wonderful to see; for Empedocles is 
strikingly concrete. But the aeons of change never 
end ; and the revolution, as we have seen, comes full 
circle forever. 

There is too the large poet's feeling for the color, 
the movement, the mystery, the life of the world 
about us : for the wide glow of blue heaven, for the 
rain streaming down on the mountain trees, for the 
wind-storm riding in from ocean, for 

"Night, the lonely, with her sightless eyes," 



12 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

for the lion couched on the mountain side, the diver- 
bird skimming the waves with its wings, and 

"The songless shoals of spawning fish" 

that are 

"nourished in deep waters" 

and led, it may be, by Aphrodite. 

There is the poet's relation to his kind, the sym- 
pathy with 

"men and women, the pitied and bewailed," 

who after their little share of life with briefest 
fates 

"Like smoke are lifted up and flit away;" 

the interest and the joy in the activities of man: 
how now one lights his lantern and sallies forth in 
the wintry night ; how now another mixes his paints 
in the sunlight for a variegated picture of trees 
and birds which is to adorn the temple; how now 
a little girl, down by the brook, 

"Plays with a waterclock of gleaming bronze." 

There is the poet's instinct for the effective 
phrase, which suggests so much, because it tells so 
little ; an austere simplicity, which relates the author 
by achievement to that best period of Greek art to 
which he belonged by birth; and a roll of rhythm 
as impassioned and sonorous as was ever heard on 
Italian soil, though that soil was the birth-place of 
Lucretius . . . But I am the translator, not the critic, 
of the poet. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Bodrero in his 77 Principio fondamentale del sistema di Empedocle 1 
(Rome, 1904; cited as "Bodrero") gives a valuable bibliog- 
raphy, almost exhaustive for the study of our philosopher, 
save for the surprising omission of the work of Burnet. Bo- 
drero is presumably known and accessible to the special stu- 
dent; for the general reader the following will, perhaps, be 
found sufficient : 

Blakewell. Source Book in Greek Philosophy, New York, 1907. 
(Contains partial prose translation, but came to hand after 
the present volume was in press.) 

Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, London, 1892. (Keen and inde- 
pendent. Cited as "Burnet."). 

Fairbanks, The First Philosophers of Greece, New York, 1898. 
(Contains translations of the doxographers on Empedocles.) 

Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, vol. I., trans, by Laurie Magnus, New 
York, 1901. (Beautifully written, inspiring; but somewhat 
fanciful. Cited as "Gomperz") 

Symonds, Studies of the Greek Poets, vol. I., chap. VII., London, 
1893. (Good critical appreciation, with some prose transla- 
tions.) 

Tanner y, Pour I'histoire de la science hellene, Paris, 1887. (Keen 
and independent. Cited as "Tannery.") 

Windelband, History of Ancient Philosophy, trans, by H. E. Cush- 
man, New York, 1899. 

J This book seems to me as remarkable for its scholarship and 
acumen as for the speciousness of its views. I wrote to Professor 
Diels about it, who answered, however, that he had not as yet found 
time to examine it. 



14 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Zeller, Die Philosophie der Griechen, I. Teil, fiinfte Auflage, Leip- 
sic, 1892. (Cited as "Zeller.") 

And the above mentioned texts of 

Diels, Poetarum Philosophorum Fragmenta, Berlin, 1901. (Contains 
the comments of the doxographers in the Greek, and a few, 
but very useful, original notes in Latin. Cited as "Diels, 
PPF.") 

" Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, zweite Auflage, erster Band, 
Berlin, 1906. (Contains German translation. Cited as "Diels, 
FV.") 



ON NATURE. 

To His Friend. 
i. 
Tlawavlr), <tv Se k\v0l } 8ai<f)povo<; 'Ay^trou vie. 

Hear thou, Pausanias, son of wise Anchitus! 

Limitations of Knowledge. 

2. 

crreivoiiroi [xev yap ira\dp,ai Kara yvla Kexvvrai' 
-zroXXa Se SeiX' e/x7raia, ra r afifiXvvovcri fjbepifxvas. 
iravpov Se ^cutJs iSiov pipos aOpTJo" aires 
taKVfjLopoi Kairvolo Slktjv apOivres airiirrav 
avrb piovov ireicO ernes, Stcol TtpoveKvpcrev eKaaros 
iravTOV iXavvopevoL, to 8' o\ov [Vols] ev^erai evpeiv 
ovr<o$ ovV emSepKra raS' dvhpaa'iv ovS' eVa/covora 
ovre voo)i irepiXrjTJTa. <rv 8' oSV, eVel (58* ikuiarOrjS) 

7T€U<7€(U OV 7r\4oV 7j€ fipOTelr] ft^TtS Op<t)p€V. 

For narrow through their members scattered ways 
Of knowing lie. And many a vile surprise 
Blunts soul and keen desire. And having viewed 
Their little share of life, with briefest fates, 
Like smoke they are lifted up and flit away, 
Believing only what each chances on, 



l6 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Hither and thither driven ; yet they boast 
The larger vision of the whole and all. 
But thuswise never shall these things be seen, 
Never be heard by men, nor seized by mind ; 
And thou, since hither now withdrawn apart, 
Shalt learn — no more than mortal ken may span. 



oreydcrcu <j)pevbs ZWottos etcrai. 

Shelter these teachings in thine own mute breast. 

4. 
dXXa Oeol tq)v fJLtv fiavirji/ airorpexjjaTe yk(Lcra"q^ , 
ex. S' oortcov crTOfiaTcop KaOapfjv o^ereucrarc irrjyijv. 
Kal ere, 7ro\vp,vTJ(rTrj \evKco\eve irapOeve Movcra, 
ai/ro/icu, &v #e/us icrrlv i^rjixepuoLcriv dKovew, 
7re/x7T€ 7rap EucreySfys iXdovcr evrjviov apfia. 
ixrjhe ere y €v86£olo fiiijcreTai dvOea TLfJirjs 
wpbs Oviyroiv dvekicrO ai, ec/>' <yi 6* ocri-qs tt\4ov elnelv 
Odpae'C Kal Tore 8^ crocks eV' aKpoicn Bodt^iv. 
dW ay' d6 pei irdcrrji TraXd/iTji, irrji SrjXov e/caaroi/, 
firjre ti oxftLv k\a)v 7tC(TT€l tt\4ov tj /car aKovijp 
rj aKorjv ipfoovirov vnep Tpavcofiara y\d>cr<rr}<;, 
firjre tl tcov dWcov, oiroarji 7ropo<; icrrl vorjcrai, 

yVlOiV 7TLCTTLV CjpV/CC, VO€l 0* TjL hrfXov €Ka<TTOV. 

But turn their madness, Gods ! from tongue of mine, 
And drain through holy lips the well-spring clear ! 
And many-wooed, O white-armed Maiden-Muse, 
Thee I approach : O drive and send to me 
Meek Piety's well-reined chariot of song, 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 1 7 

So far as lawful is for men to hear, 
Whose lives are but a day. Nor shall desire 
To pluck the flowers of fame and wide report 
Among mankind impel thee on to dare 
Speech beyond holy bound and seat profane 
Upon those topmost pinnacles of Truth. 
But come, by every way of knowing see 
How each thing is revealed. Nor, having sight, 
Trust sight no more than hearing will bear out, 
Trust echoing ear but after tasting tongue ; 
Nor check the proof of all thy members aught : 
Note by all ways each thing as 'tis revealed. 

5- 
d\\a Ka/cot? [lev Kapra fieXeu Kpareovcriv amoTeiv . 
&>S Se Trap* rj/jLerepr)*; /ceXerat morcu/iara Movcrqs, 
yvoiOi 8iacro"r)0evTo<s ivl <nr\diyyyoia'i \6yoio. 

Yea, but the base distrust the High and Strong ; 
Yet know the pledges that our Muse will urge, 
When once her words be sifted through thy soul. 

The Elements. 
6. 
rexcra/oa yap iravrcov pi^co/iara 7rpa>Tov a/cove* 
Zeus apyrjq 'Hpr) re <j>ep€crf3io<; ^8' 'AiScovevs 
N^a-rts 9\ rj 8aKpvoLS reyyei Kpovvcofxa fipoTeiov. 

And first the fourfold root of all things hear ! — 
White gleaming Zeus, life-bringing Here, Dis, 
And Nestis whose tears bedew mortality. 



l8 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

7- 

dyii/rjra. 

The uncreated elements. 

Birth and Death. 
8. 
dXko he tol ipeco- cfrvcris ouSe^ds icrriv diravTatv 
OvtjtcoV) ovBe ris ovXofievov Oavdroio TeXevnj, 
dWd fjiovov fJLL&s re SiaWafis re fxiyevTcov 

i(TTLj (f)V(TL<; 8' €7Tt TOLS OVOfld^Tai dv9 ptoTTOKTlV . 

More will I tell thee too : there is no birth 
Of all things mortal, nor end in ruinous death ; 
But mingling only and interchange of mixed 
There is, and birth is but its name with men. 

9. 
01 o ore [Lev Kara (pcora fXLyevr €15 aittep i\_ko)vtox\ 
rj Kara 0r)p(oi/ dyporepcov yevos rj Kara Odfivcov 
r)e /car' oIcdpojVj Tore p,ev to [Xeyovcri] yeve&Oai' 
evre S' ditoKpivdoMJi, ra S* av hvchaifiova ttot^ov 
r) defjLLs [ov] /caXeoucri, voficoi S* eVu^/u /cat aurds. 

But when in man, wild beast, or bird, or bush, 
These elements commingle and arrive 
The realms of light, the thoughtless deem it "birth" ; 
When they dispart, 'tis "doom of death ;" and though 
Not this the Law, I too assent to use. 

10. 
Odvarov . . . d\oirrjV, 

Avenging Death. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 19 

Ex nihilo nihil. 
11. 
vqirioi' ov yap <r<f>iv hokiyofypovis elcri fxepifivai,) 
ot St) yiyveaOai irdpos ovk ibv ekTri^ovcriv 
rj tl KaraOvrjicrKeiv re /cat i£6\\vcr0 ai diraVrtyi. 

Fools ! for their thoughts are briefly brooded o'er. 
Who trust that what is not can e'er become, 
Or aught that is can wholly die away. 

12. 
e/c T€ yap ovSa/x' iovros afXTJ^avov eon. yevicrOai 
KaC r ibv i^airokiaO ai avrjvvcrTOV /cat aVuoTOj>- 
alel ydp rrji y ear cu, 077771 k4 tls alkv ipe[Sr)L. 

From what-is-not what-is can ne'er become; 
So that what-is should e'er be all destroyed, 
No force could compass and no ear hath heard — 
For there 'twill be forever where 'tis set. 



The Plenum. 
13. 
ovSe tl tov iravTos Kevebv irikei ov8e TrepuTtrov. 

The All hath neither Void nor Overflow. 

14. 

TOV 7TCWTOS 8* Ovhkv K€V€OV' Tt60€V OVV TL K ilT€\0Oi; 

But with the All there is no Void, so whence 
Could aught of more come nigh? 



20 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Our Elements Immortal. 
15. 
ovk av avrjp Toiavra croc^o? <f>pecrl fiavrevcraiTOy 
&)§ 6<f) pa fxev re ^Stcocrt, to S77 fi'iorov /caXeoucrt, 
To<f>pa fiev ovv elcriv } /cat crfyiv irdpa SetXct /cat ccr#Xa, 
irplv heirdyev re fipoTol /cat [eVet] XvOev, ovSev dp' ticrip. 

No wise man dreams such folly in his heart, 
That only whilst we live what men call life 
We have our being and take our good and ill, 
And ere as mortals we compacted be, 
And when as mortals we be loosed apart, 
We are as nothing. 

Love and Hate, the Everlasting. 
16. 
rji yap Kal Trapos Icr/ce, /cat ecrcrerat, ovSe ttot ', ota>, 

TOVTCOV d[JL<l)OT€pQ)l/ K€V€CO(T€TaL acr7T€T05 aiCOV . 

For even as Love and Hate were strong of yore, 
They shall have their hereafter ; nor I think 
Shall endless Age be emptied of these Twain. 

The Cosmic Process. 

17- 
onrh epeco- tot€ fiev yap ev rjvgrjttr] jxovov €wat 
€/c TrXeovcov, Tore S' av Ste'</>u 7rXe'oz/ i£ ivbs elvai. 
Sot?) Se 6vtjT(x)v yeVecrt?, Sour) 8' a7ro\€u//ts- 
tt}v fxev yap irdvTcov crwoSos rt/cret r oXe/cet re, 
17 8e ird\iv §ia<f)vofjL€va)v OpefyOelcra SteVn/. 
/cat ravr' dWdcrcrovTa 8ta/>t7repe5 ouSa/xct X^yct, 
aXXore //,ei> 4>tXor^rt crvvepyofxev et? e*/ aVaira, 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 21 

aXXore 8' aS St^' e/cacrra (fropevpeva Net/ceos e^et. 
[oura>s 171 fjLev eV e/c 7rXedi><yi> p,ep,ddy)Ke <£vecr0at] 
ijhk irakiv 8ia(j)vvTO<s eVos ir\eov e/creXe'^ovcrt, 
rfji pev yiyvovral re /cat ov afacriv e/x7reSos alcov 
rjL Se StaXXdcrcro^ra Sta/x,7repes ovSapa Xifyet, 
tovttjl 8' ateV eacriv aKLvrjTot, /caret kvkKov. 
aXX' aye pvdoiv k\v9l- pdOrj yap rot cfrpevas avfer 
a>s yap /cat irplv eet7ra TtifyavcrKQiv ireipara psvBow, 
SurX 5 ipeco' Tore pev yap eV rjv^TJOrj piovov elvai 
e/c TrXeopojv, Tore 8' aS Ste'^v tt\4ov it; ivbs eu>at, 
irvp Kal vScop /cat yata /cat rjepos aVXeroi/ v\pos y 
Net/cds t ov\6pevov 8t^a twz/, araXa^roi/ airdvrqi y 
/cat <I>tXdrT95 eV to tcr«/, to-77 pfjicos re 7rXdros Te- 
rr)*' ctu i>d(wt Sep/cev, piqS' oppacriv 770-0 reOrjircos- 
rjns /cat 0v7jTolcn vop.iQe.Tai ip(j)VTo<; dp0pois y 
rrji re <£tXa (frpoveoven /cat apOpia ejpya reXovcrt, 
Tr]8oo-vvY]v /caXeWres iir^vvpov 778' 'Ac^poStrqz/- 
ttjv ov Tt? xterct rotcrti/ eXtcro-o/xeVi^ SeSctTi/ce 
OvTqTos dvrjp' o~v 8* a/cove Xdyov otoXoz/ ov/c dTrar^Xd^. 
ravra yap tcra re Trdvra /cat ?JXt/ca yivvav eacrt, 
rttt^? 8' aXX^s aXXo /xe'Set, 7rdpa 8* -^^os e/edcrrtut, 
eV Se tte'pet Kpareovcri Trepnr\op4voio ^povoio, 
/cat 7rpos rot 5 our' dp re rt ytverai ovt diroXTJyev 
etre yap icfrdeipovro Sta/A7repe's, ovk4t av rjo~av 
tovto 8' eVat^crete to 7rdi> rt /ce /cat iroOev i\06v; 
irrju Se /ce /c^fa7rdXotro, eVet rawS* ovSeV ept)pov; 
dXX' aura eo~rti> ravra, 8t* aXXT^Xaij/ Se Oiovra 
yiyverai aXXore aXXa /cat T^e/ces ateV opola. 

I will report a twofold truth. Now grows 
The One from Many into being, now 



22 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Even from the One disparting come the Many. 
Twofold the birth, twofold the death of things : 
For, now, the meeting of the Many brings 
To birth and death ; and, now, whatever grew 
From out their sundering, flies apart and dies. 
And this long interchange shall never end. 
Whiles into One do all through Love unite; 
Whiles too the same are rent through hate of Strife. 
And in so far as is the One still wont 
To grow from Many, and the Many, again, 
Spring from primeval scattering of the One, 
So far have they a birth and mortal date ; 
And in so far as the long interchange 
Ends not, so far forever established gods 
Around the circle of the world they move. 
But come! but hear my words! For knowledge 

gained 
Makes strong thy soul. For as before I spake, 
Naming the utter goal of these my words, 
I will report a twofold truth. Now grows 
The One from Many into being, now 
Even from the One disparting come the Many, — 
Fire, Water, Earth and awful heights of Air; 
And shut from them apart, the deadly Strife 
In equipoise, and Love within their midst 
In all her being in length and breadth the same. 
Behold her now with mind, and sit not there 
With eyes astonished, for 'tis she inborn 
Abides established in the limbs of men. 
Through her they cherish thoughts of love, through 

her 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 23 

Perfect the works of concord, calling her 

By name Delight or Aphrodite clear. 

She speeds revolving in the elements, 

But this no mortal man hath ever learned — 

Hear thou the undelusive course of proof: 

Behold those elements own equal strength 

And equal origin; each rules its task; 

And unto each its primal mode ; and each 

Prevailing conquers with revolving time. 

And more than these there is no birth nor end ; 

For were they wasted ever and evermore, 

They were no longer, and the great All were then 

How to be plenished and from what far coast ? 

And how, besides, might they to ruin come, 

Since nothing lives that empty is of them? — 

No, these are all, and, as they course along 

Through one another, now this, now that is born — 

And so forever down Eternity. 

18. 

Love. 

19. 

Firm-clasping Lovingness. 

Love and Hate in the Organic World. 
20. 
tovto fiev av fiporecov fieXecov apiheiKerov oyKov 
aXXore fiep ^lXottjtl (rvvep^ofiev eis h> aircLVTCL 



24 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

yvta, ra crw/ia Xe'Xoyx e > ftov OakiOovros iv aKfirji- 
aXXore 8' avre /ca/a}icrt hiarpL^OivT 'E/nSecro-t 
7rXa£erat dvhix e/cacrra Treplpprjyixlvi /Stoto. 
a)? 8' avrws 6dyivoi(Ti /cat l^vdiv vSpofiekdOpois 
07jp(TL t o/oeiXe^eecra-ti' t8e TTTepofidfjiocn /a;^/3ats. 

The world-wide warfare of the eternal Two 
Well in the mass of human limbs is shown : 
Whiles into one do they through Love unite, 
And mortal members take the body's form, 
And life doth flower at the prime ; and whiles, 
Again dissevered by the Hates perverse, 
They wander far and wide and up and down 
The surf-swept beaches and drear shores of life. 
So too with thicket, tree, and gleaming fish 
Housed in the crystal walls of waters wide ; 
And so with beasts that couch on mountain slopes, 
And water-fowls that skim the long blue sea. 

From the Elements is All We See. 

21. 

aXX aye, tw8' odpwv TrpoTepw imfidprupa Se'p/cev, 
et rt /cat iv irpoTtpoicri \nro£v\ov iirXero /xop^rjij 
tjcXlov jikv Oeppibv opav /cat XafXTrpbv bmdvTr)i, 
aiiftpoTa 8' ocrcr t8et re /cat dpyen Several avyrji, 
ofxftpov 8 iv ttolcti Svocj^oevrd re piyaXiov re* 
e/c o anjs irpopeovcri OeXvfivd re /cat crrepea>7ra. 
ev Se Kotcol Sidfiop(j)a /cat aVSt^a irdvTa ireXovrai, 
<tvv 8* e/317 iv &l\6t7)ti /cat dXX^Xotcrt Trofletrat. 
e/c tovtcov yap irdvff ocra r tjv ocra t ecrri /cat ecrrat, 
SeVSpea t ifi\d<rTr)<re /cat aWpes ^Se ywat/ces, 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 25 

drjpes r olcovoC re kgll v$aTo0p€fjLfiove<; i^OvSy 

KCLL T€ OeOL SoXl^atWcS TLfXTJiCTL <f>epi(TTOL, 

avTa yap ccttlv raura, 81' aWrfXcov Se Biovra 
yiyverai aWoicond- toctov Std Kprjcns d/xetySet. 

But come, and to my words foresaid look well, 

If their wide witness anywhere forgot 

Aught that behooves the elemental forms: 

Behold the Sun, the warm, the bright-diffused ; 

Behold the eternal Stars, forever steeped 

In liquid heat and glowing radiance; see 

Also the Rain, obscure and cold and dark, 

And how from Earth streams forth the Green and 

Firm. 
And all through Wrath are split to shapes diverse ; 
And each through Love draws near and yearns for 

each. 
For from these elements hath budded all 
That was or is or evermore shall be — 
All trees, and men and women, beasts and birds, 
And fishes nourished in deep waters, aye, 
The long-lived gods,Jn honors excellent. 
For these are all, and, as they course along 
Through one another, they take new faces all, 
By varied mingling and enduring change. 

Similta Similibus. 
22. 
apOfjua ja€v yap ravra eavrcov vavra fiepea-CLVy 
rj\eKT(op T€ ^Ocov re Kal ovpavos rjSe 0d\acrcra, 
ocrcra €J)u/ iv dirqrolcriv airoirXa^BevTa irifyvKev. 



26 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

a>? 8' avrcos ocr a Kpacriv iwapKea fxaXXov eaa"ti>, 

dXX^Xotg ecrrep/CTat ofjiOLcoOevr 'A^poStTTjt. 

^xOpa [8* a] ir\el(TTov dir dXkrjXcov hiiyovcri jLtdXtora 

yivvr\i tc KpTjaeL re /cat euSeauv e/tytd/crotcrt, 

iravTrji crvyyivecrOai dijOea /cat fxd\a Xvypd 

Net/ceos ivveairjLcnvy ort <r<f>icrL yevvav iopyev. 

For amber Sun and Earth and Heaven and Sea 

Is friendly with its every part that springs, 

Far driven and scattered, in the mortal world ; 

So too those things that are most apt to mix 

Are like, and love by Aphrodite's hest. 

But hostile chiefly are those things which most 

From one another differ, both in birth, 

And in their mixing and their molded forms — 

Unwont to mingle, miserable and lone, 

After the counsels of their father, Hate. 

An Analogy. 
23- 
o»S 8' birorav y payees dvadrjpLOLTa ttolkiWcoctii/ 
avepes afifa tc^i^s viro [jltJtlos e3 8e8aa>re, 

OtT C7T€t OVV fJidplpCDCTL TToXv^poa (frdpfJLaKCL yep(TlV y 

dpfiovLTji fxeC^avre tol fxkv 7rXe<w, aXXa 8* eXdcrcra>, 
e/c to) v ctSea irdcnv dXty/cta Tropcvvovcri^ 
So/Sped re ktl£oist€ /cat dvepas ^8e yvvcuKas 
Orjpds T olcovov? re /cat vhaToOpifx povas t^flus 
/cat T€ deovs SoXt^atftwas Tifirjicn fyeplcrTovs' 
ovto) firj cr dirdTT) <j>p€va kollvvtco d\\o0ev elvai 
uvrjTcoV) offcra ye SrjXa yeyaKacriv acr7r€ra, Trrjyijp, 
aXXa Topoig toJvt IdOi, deov irdpa. pvOov d/covcra?. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 2*] 

And even as artists — men who know their craft 
Through wits of cunning — paint with streak and 

hue 
Bright temple-tablets, and will seize in hand 
The oozy poisons pied and red and gold 
(Mixing harmonious, now more, now less), 
From which they fashion forms innumerable, 
And like to all things, peopling a fresh world 
With trees, and men and women, beasts and birds, 
And fishes nourished in deep waters, aye, 
And long-lived gods in honors excellent: 
Just so (and let no guile deceive thy breast), 
Even so the spring of mortal things, leastwise 
Of all the host born visible to man. 
O guard this knowledge well, for thou hast heard 
In this my song the Goddess and her tale. 



The Speculative Thinker. 
24. 

. . . Kopv(f>a<; erepas eTeprjicn 7rpocrd7rT(OT/ 
\Lvdoiv firj rekieiv aTpcnrbv fitav. . . 

To join together diverse peaks of thought, 
And not complete one road that has no turn. 

An Aphorism. 
25. 
. . . KaX 819 yap, 6 Set, Kakov icrTiv ivicnreiir. 

What must be said, may well be said twice o'er. 



28 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

The Law of the Elements. 
26. 
eV Se [jiepei KpareovcrL 7rept7rXoju,eVoto kvk\olo 1 
/cat <J)9lv€l ets dWrjXa /cat auferat iv fiepei awr^s. 
avra yap €(TTlv ravra, St' dWrjXcov Se Biovra 
yivovrai dvOpcoiroi re /cat aXXa)z> iOvea Orjpwv 
aXXore fieV ^tXor^rt crvvep^opiev ets eW Kocrfiovj 
aXXore S' a? St^' e/caara (j)opovfxeva Net/ceo? e^et, 
elcroKev ev avyi^vvra to ttojv virevep0e yevrjTcu. 
ovtcos r\i ftez/ eV e/c 7rXeoi>cui/ {JL€fxd0rjKe (frvecrdaij 
r)$€ irakiv hia$vvTo<z ivbs tt\4ov e/CTeXe'#oi>crt, 
T^t /*eV yiyvovTol re /cat ov cr<£tcrti> e/A7reSos atw*'- 
7)t Se raS' dXXacrcroz/ra Sta/X7repes ovoajjud X^yet, 
TavrrjL S* ateV eacnv aKivrjToi /caret kvkXov. 

In turn they conquer as the cycles roll, 
And wane the one to other still, and wax 
The one to other in turn by olden Fate; 
For these are all, and, as they course along 
Through one another, they become both men 
And multitudinous tribes of hairy beasts ; 
Whiles in fair order through Love united all, 
Whiles rent asunder by the hate of Strife, 
Till they, when grown into the One and All 
Once more, once more go under and succumb. 
And in so far as is the One still wont 
To grow from the Many, and the Many, again, 
Spring from primeval scattering of the One, 
So far have they a birth and mortal date. 
And in so far as this long interchange 
Ends not, so far forever established gods 
Around the circle of the world they move. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 29 

The Sphere. 
27. 
a/0' ovt 'HeXibio StetSerai o)Kea yvia 
ovSe fiev ovS* 0,1779 \dcriov jiteVo? ovSe ddkacrcra' 

OVTCOS { ApfJLOVLTJS TTVKIVCOI KpVcfxOl €<TTT]piKTCU 

S<^at/3os KVKkoTeprjs jxovCrjL 7repirjyeL yaicov. 

There views one not the swift limbs of the Sun, 
Nor there the strength of shaggy Earth, nor Sea; 
But in the strong recess of Harmony, 
Established firm abides the rounded Sphere, 
Exultant in surrounding solitude. 

27a. 
ov oracris ov8e re SrjpLS aVaicri/xos iv fieXeecrcriv. 

Nor faction nor fight unseemly in its limbs. 



aXX' 6 ye iravroOev tcro? [op] koX Trdfjarav a7T6Lpaiiv 
2<£atpo5 KVK\oTepr)<z jjlovltjl TrepirjyeL yaioiv. 

The Sphere on every" side the boundless same, 
Exultant in surrounding solitude. 

29. 
ov yap a7rb varroio Svo kXciSoi duTcrozrai, 
ov -fl-oScs, ov 0ooL yovva, ov firjBea yevvrfevTa, 
aXXa o~4>cupo<; erjv kcu \jrdvToQev~\ tcro? eavrait. 

For from its back there swing no branching arms, 
It hath no feet nor knees alert, nor form 



30 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Of life-producing member, — on all sides 
A sphere it was, and like unto itself. 

30. 
avrap intl fxeya Neifcos ivtp.pLekieao'iv i0p€<f>Or} 
es Ti/xas t dvopovae re\eiojxevoio ^povoio ) 
os (t^>lv a/ioi^cuos 7rXareos nap* ekrfkaTai opKov . . . 

Yet after mighty Strife had waxen great 
Within the members of the Sphere, and rose 
To her own honors, as the times arrived 
Which unto each in turn, to Strife, to Love, 
Should come by amplest oath and old decree . . . 

31. 

irdvra yap i^eirjs Treke^i^ero yvla Oeolo. 

For one by one did quake the limbs of God. 

Physical Analogies. 

32. 
$v<o Sect apOpov, 

The joint binds two. 

33- 
cos o or 67705 yaXa XevKov iy6ii(f)Q)(r€v koll iSrjcre . . . 

But as when rennet of the fig-tree juice 
Curdles the white milk, and will bind it fast. . . 

34- 
a\(f>LTov v8an KoXX^cras . . . 

Cementing meal with water . . . 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 3 1 

The Conquest of Love. 
35. 
avTap iyco iraklvoparos eXevo*o//,cu e? iropov vfxvcoVy 
tov irpoTepov /care'Xefa, Xoyov \6yov i^o^erevcov , 
tcelvov eVel Neucos /u,eV ivepraTov lk€to fiivOos 
Su>775, eV Se fiecrrji &l\6tt]s arpofyakiyyi y&wryrai, 
eV ttjl 8rj rdSe irdvra crvv4p\erai IV [lqvov etpai, 
ovk a^apj dXXa OeXrjfid crvvKTrdp^ev dWoOev aXXa. 
t&v Se re fiKryofjievcov X € ^ T ' £@vea fivpCa Ovrjrcov 
7roXXa 8' oifjL€LKT eoT^Ke KepaiofjuevoMTiis eWXXdf , 
ocrcr en Neucos ipvKe fxeTdpatov ov yap dju,e/x<£e'<us 
T(t>v trav i^€(TTrjK€P iir ecr^ara rep para ku/cXov, 
dXXa tol fxiv T ivefjufjive, /x,eXeW rd Se r i£e@€/3rJK€L. 
oorcrov 8* aieV virtiarpodioi) tocov alkv iinJLei 
rjmocfrpcov <&l\6tt)TO<; d/xe/^eos dfjuftpoTos opfXTj- 
al\pa Se Ovtjt i<f)vovTo, rd irp\v p,d0ov aOdvar eti>ai, 
tpipd re rd TrpiV) aKprjTa [/cp^rd, ?] StaXXdfa^ra /ce- 

Xeu^ovs. 
raiz/ Se re ixicryoyievcov y&T iOvea fivpia 0vr}TO)P } 
iravTolaLS IZi^icriv^ap'qpoTa^ 6avp*a iSecr0cu. 

But hurrying back, I now will make return 
To paths of festal song, laid down before, 
Draining each flowing thought from flowing 

thought. 
When down the Vortex to the last abyss 
Had foundered Hate, and Lovingness had reached 
The eddying center of the Mass, behold 
Around her into Oneness gathered all. 
Yet not a-sudden, but only as willingly 
Each from its several region joined with each ; 



$2 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

And from their mingling thence are poured abroad 
The multitudinous tribes of mortal things. 
Yet much unmixed among the mixed remained, 
As much as Hate still held in scales aloft. 
For not all blameless did Hate yield and stand 
Out yonder on the circle's utmost bounds; 
But partwise yet within he stayed, partwise 
Was he already from the members gone. 
And ever the more skulked away and fled, 
Then ever the more, and nearer, inward pressed 
The gentle minded, the divine Desire 
Of blameless Lovingness. Thence grew apace 
Those mortal Things, erstwhile long wont to be 
Immortal, and the erstwhile pure and sheer 
Were mixed, exchanging highways of new life, 
And from their mingling thence are poured abroad 
The multitudinous tribes of mortal things, 
Knit in all forms and wonderful to see. 

36. 
to>v Se (Tvvepypixivoiv ef ia^aTov Xcrraro Net/co?. 

And as they came together, Hate began 
To take his stand far on the outer verge. 

Similia similibus. 
37- 
avfec Se xOw P*v (r^irepov Se^as, aWepa S' alOrjp. 

And Earth through Earth her figure magnifies, 
And Air through Air. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 33 

The World as It Now Is. 
38. 
. . . ei 8' aye rot ketjco irpu)6 > iJXi/ca r dpxi v i 
cf <f)v StJX' iyevovro tol vvv icropajfxev arravra^ 
yaid re /ecu ttovtos ttoXvkvjxcjv 7)8' vypbs drjp 
Tltolv rjh' aWrjp cr^iyycov ire pi kvkKov airavra. 

Come! I will name the like-primeval Four, 
Whence rose to sight all things we now behold — 
Earth, many-billowed Sea, and the moist Air, 
And Aether, the Titan, who binds the globe about. 

Earth and Air Not Illimitable. 

39- 
€?7r€p aireipova yfjs re fidO-q /ecu Sai/fiXos aWrjp^ 
a>5 Sid ttoWwp St) yXwcrcrTis prjOevra fiaTauos 
e/c/ce^vTat oro/tara)!/, oXCyov rod ttclvtos IhovTcav. 

If Earth's black deeps were endless, and o'er-full 
Were the white Ether, as forsooth some tongues 
Have idly prated in the babbling mouths 
Of those who little of the All have seen . . . 

Sun and Moon. 
40. 
77X105 6£v/3eXr)s 7)8' IXdeipa creXTJvr). 

Keen-darting Helios and Selene mild. 

41. 

aXX 6 fAev dXtcrOels fieyav ovpavbv dfjLcfrnroXevei. 

But the sun's fires, together gathered, move 
Attendant round the mighty space of heaven, 



34 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

42. 
a7recrTeya<rev Se ol avyas, 
ebV av (tjl KaOvnepdev, dTreaKVLffxoae Se yalrjs 
Toacrov oaov r evpos yXavKcomSos err\ero nijvrjs. 

And the sun's beams 
The moon, in passing under, covers o'er, 
And darkens a bleak tract of earth as large 
As is the breadth of her, the silver-eyed. 

43. 
w? avyrj Tifyacra creXrjvairjs kvkXov evpvv . . . 

As sunbeam striking on the moon's broad disk. 

44. 
avTdvyel 77/305 "OXvfJLirov aTapfirJToicri Trpoaamois. 

Toward Olympos back he darts his beams, 
With fearless face. 

45- 
KVKkorepes rrepl yalav eXtcrcrercu aWorpiov <£<£$. 

Ov Round earth revolves a disk of alien light. 

46. 
ap/iaros <ws irepi ^yoir] eXtcrcrcrat 77 re Trap aKprjv . 

Even as revolves a chariot's nave, which round 
The outmost . . . 

47. 
dOpei fikv yap avaKTos Ivavriov ayka kvkKov. 

For toward the sacred circle of her lord 
She gazes face to face. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 35 

48. 
vvktol Se ycua TiOrjcrw v<j>tcrTafxevoLo (fxiecrcn. 

But earth makes night for beams of sinking sun. 

The Darkling Night. 
49- 
wktos iprjjAaLrjs a\aami8os . . . 

Of night, the lonely, with her sightless eyes. 

Wind and Rain. 
50. 
*Ipts 8' e/c 7re\ayous avefiov <f>£peL rj /xiyav Ofiftpov. 

Iris from sea brings wind or mighty rain. 

Fire. 

51. 
KapTraXuficos 8* avoiraiov . . . 

And fire sprang upward with a rending speed. 

The Volcano. 
52. 
iroWa 8' evep6e ouSeos irvpa Kaierai. 

And many a fire there burns beneath the ground. 

Air. 

53- 
ovtq) yap (TvveKvpae Oemv Tori, ttoWcikl 8' dXXws. 

For sometimes so upon its course it met, 
And ofttimes otherwise. 



36 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Things Passing Strange. 
54. 
aWrjp [S' a5] fxaKprjicn Kara ^66va Svero /5i£cus. 

In Earth sank Ether with deep-stretching roots. 

55. 
yfjs ISpcora OdXacrcrav. 

Earth's sweat, the sea. 

56. 
aXs iirdyr) pnrfjicriv icocrfJievos rjeKioio. 

The salt grew solid, smit by beams of sun. 

Strange Creatures of Olden Times. 

57- 

fy iroWal pel/ ko per ai avavyeves ifSkdcrriqcrav , 
yvfivol 8' inXd^ovTo fipa^oves evviBes atfjucovj 
6/x/xara r ola iirXavaro TrevqTevovra fjiercjircoj/ . 

There budded many a head without a neck, 
And arms were roaming, shoulderless and bare, 
And eyes that wanted foreheads drifted by. 

58. 
[. . . fjLOvvofieKyj en rd yvla . . . ovra inXavaTo . . .] 

In isolation wandered every limb, 
Hither and thither seeing union meet. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 27 

59. 
avrap iirel Kara fiel^ov ifiLcryero BaCjiovt 8aip,coV) 
TGLvrd re <rvfJL7ri7TTecrKov, oittji crvveKvpcrev efcacrra, 
dXXa re irpbs tols ttoXXol Sit^cktJ itjeyivovTo . 

But now as God with God was mingled more, 
These members fell together where they met, 
And many a birth besides was then begot 
In a long line of ever varied life. 

60. 
€1X17708' aKpiro^eipa, 

Creatures of countless hands and trailing feet. 

61. 
7ToXX<x fjiev afi(f)L7rp6(ra)7ra /ecu dp^LCTTepva <£u€cr#ca, 
fiovyevr} av^pOTrpoiipa, ra 8' epLirakiv i^avarkWeiv 
dv8po(j)vrj fiovKpava, /le/teiy/xeVa rrji fjuev an dvSpcov 
ttJl Se yvvaLKO(f)vf} , cr/aepois rjcrKr] piiva yvCois. 

Many were born with twofold brow and breast, 
Some with the face of man on bovine stock, 
Some with man's form beneath a bovine head, 
Mixed shapes of being with shadowed secret parts, 
Sometimes like men, and sometimes woman- 
growths. 

62. 
vvv 8' dy , 07T0)5 dv8pa>v re TrokvKkavrcDV re yvvaiKwv 
ivvvyiovs opTTTjKas avtjyaye Kpivopevov irvp } 
TcovSe k\v- ov yap javOos airocrKOTros ov8' aZarfpaiv. 
ov\o(f)veL<; pev irpcora tvttol ^(Oovo^ i^avereWoPj 
afjL(j)OTep(ov uSaros re /cat tSeos alaav fyovres' 



38 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

tovs jJicv irvp ave7refATre Oekov irpbs ofiolov iKecrdcu, 
ovre tC irco jxekicov iparbv Se/tas i^aivovra^ 

OVT ij/OTTTJV oX6v T €Tri\(x)plOV OLvSpdcTl JVIOV . 

But come! now hear how 'twas the sundered Fire 
Led into life the germs, erst whelmed in night, 
Of men and women, the pitied and bewailed; 
For 'tis a tale that sees and knows its mark. 
First rose mere lumps of earth with rude impress, 
That had their shares of Water and of Warm. 
These then by Fire (in upward zeal to reach 
Its kindred Fire in heaven) were shot aloft, 
Albeit not yet had they revealed a form 
Of lovely limbs, nor yet a human cry, 
Nor secret member, common to the male. 

The Process of Human Generation To-day. 
63. 
dXXa Siecr7raoTai fxeXicov fyvais- rj fiev iv avSpos . . . 

But separate is the birth of human limbs ; 
For 'tis in part in man's . . . 

64. 
tcol o' inl Kal Hodos clcrt Si' oi/fio? afifJUfivrjiCTKCtiv. 

Love-longing comes, reminding him who sees. 

65. 
lv 8' iyyBf) KaOapoicri' tol p,£v TekeOovcri ywcufces, 
i/w^€o? avTido-avTOi) [t<x S' e/i7raXti/ appeva deploy]. 

Into clean wombs the seeds are poured, and when 
Therein they meet with Cold, the birth is girls ; 
And boys, when contrariwise they meet with Warm. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 39 

66. 
[ets] odorous Xei/xoWs . . . 'A^poSiT^s. 

Into the cloven meads of Aphrodite. 

67. 
iv yap depfjborepcoL tokols dppevos eirXero yaartjp' 
Kal fieXaves Sia tovto Kal avhpcohicrrepoi dvhpes 
Kal \a^yrjevTe<; /iaX\oi>. 

For bellies with the warmer wombs become 
Mothers of boys, and therefore men are dark, 
More stalwart and more shaggy. 

68. 
fiiqvbs ev oySodrov Se/car^t ttvov errkero \evKov. 

On the tenth day, in month the eighth, the blood 
Becomes white pus. 



69. 



70. 



StyovoL. 
Twice bearing. 

djXVLOV. 

Sheepskin. 



On Animals and Plants. 
7h 
el he ri <roi irepl rcovhe \ur6£v\o<; ewXero 7rum$, 
7TOJS uSaro? yaCrjs re Kal aidepos rje\iov re 
KLpvafxevcov euSr] re yevoiaro ^poid re Ovtjtcov 
to(t<t\ ocra vvv yeydacri cvvap^ocrOevT ' Kfypohirqi 



40 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

And if belief lack pith, and thou still doubt 
How from the mingling of the elements, 
The Earth and Water, the Ether and the Sun, 
So many forms and hues of mortal things 
Could thus have being, as have come to be, 
Each framed and knit by Aphrodite's power . . . 

72. 
7ro>5 /ecu SevSpea paKpa koX elvaKioi K(ifiao"fjv€<; . . . 

As the tall trees and fish in briny floods. 

73- 
a)? Se rore ydova Ku7rpis, iireu r iBirjvej/ iv o/x^Sp&>t, 
iSea ironrvuovcra Boon 7rvpl Sai/ce Kparvvai . . . 

As Kypris, after watering Earth with Rain, 
Zealous to heat her, then did give Earth o'er 
To speed of Fire that then she might grow firm. 

74- 
<j)v\ov afxovcrop ay over a Trokvcnrepicov Kafiacnjvcov. 

Leading the songless shoals of spawning fish. 

75- 
T(dv o ocr ecrcu [lev irvKva^ ra o cktoul fxava 7reirr)ye y 
Kv7rpL$os iv TraXdfjirjLcrL 77X018175 TourjcrSe Tvyovra . . . 

Of beasts, inside compact with outsides loose, 
Which, in the palms of Aphrodite shaped, 
Got this their sponginess. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 41 

76. 
tovto fxev iv Koyxauri OaXaacrovoficov jSa/nuxurois, 
vol firjv KrjpvKwv T€ \i8oppivo)v yekvcov T€* 
hff oxpei ^(6 ova ^poiTO<; viripTara vaierdovvav. 

Tis thus with conchs upon the heavy chines 
Of ocean-dwellers, aye, of shell-fish wreathed, 
Or stony-hided turtles, where thou mark'st 
The earthen crust outside the softer parts. 

77-78. 

[Sei/Spea 8'] ifjLireSocftvWa Kal ifiTreSoKapira TeOrjXev 
Kapiraiv dcfyOovirjicri kolt rjipa irdvr iviavrov. 

Trees bore perennial fruit, perennial fronds, 
Laden with fruit the whole revolving year, 
Since fed forever by a fruitful air. 

79. 

OVTO) 8' G)LOTOK€L fJLOLKpd 8£v8p€CL 7Tpa>TOV e\(UaS. 

Thus first tall olives lay their yellow eggs. 

80. 
ovveKev oxpuyovoi re criSai Kal virepcftkoia fxrjXa. 

Wherefore pomegranates slow in ripening be, 
And apples grow so plentiful in juice. 

81. 
oivos dnb <j)\oiov irtkerai crarnkv iv ^vKon v8(op. 

Wine is but water fermented in the wood, 
And issues from the rind. 



42 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

82. 

Tavrd rpix €? Ka ^ <£^^ a Ka ^ oimv&v irrepa ttvkv& 
/cat X€7uSes ylyvovrax iirl <TTifiapoio-i fiiXecrcrLv. 

From the same stuff on sturdy limbs grow hair, 
Leaves, scales of fish, and bird's thick-feathered 
plumes. 

83. 
avTap i^ivoi^ 
ofv^eXeis x a ^ TaL vwrois i7rLire(j)pCKacriv, 

Stiff hairs, keen-piercing, bristle on the chines 
Of hedge-hogs. 

Our Eyes. 
84. 
o>s 8* ore ri5 irpoo&ov vokoiv a>7rXio-craTO \vyyov 
-^eLfjiepLrjv Sia vvktcl, irvpbs creXas aWofxevoio 
aij/as, ttolvtoicdv dvificov Xafnrrrjpas dfiopyovSj 
ol t avkp^oiv pkv irvevfJLCL StacriaSvacrLv dkvrwv, 
<£<Ss 8* eftu SiadpaJMrKOV) ocrov Tavaarrepov r}ev } 
XdyLirecTKev Kara ftr]\bi> dTeipko~iv aKTivea'auv 
<b<$ Se tot iv ixrjviyi;iv iepy/jiivov oryvyiov irvp 
\eTTTrjicriv [V] oOoinqicri Xo^a^ero /cv/cXorra Kovp-qv^ 
[at] ypdvr)i<Ti hiavTa TeTpijaTO 0eo"Tre<Ti7)icriv' 
at 8' vSaros fte*' fiivdos dir£o~Teyov dfx^Lvaivros, 
irvp 8' efa> 8u€o~kov, ocrov Tavaarrepov TjtV, 

As when a man, about to sally forth, 
Prepares a light and kindles him a blaze 
Of flaming fire against the wintry night, 
In horny lantern shielding from all winds; 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 43 

Though it protect from breath of blowing winds, 
Its beam darts outward, as more fine and thin, 
And with untiring rays lights up the sky: 
Just so the Fire primeval once lay hid 
In the round pupil of the eye, enclosed 
In films and gauzy veils, which through and through 
Were pierced with pores divinely fashioned, 
And thus kept off the watery deeps around, 
Whilst Fire burst outward, as more fine and thin. 

8s. 
rj Se <j>\b£; Ikdeipa fJLivvv0a8[rjs Tv^e yalrjs. 

The gentle flame of eye did chance to get 
Only a little of the earthen part. 



cf uv o/xfxaT etrq^ev areipia Si' 'A^poSirq. 

From which by Aphrodite, the divine, 
The untiring eyes were formed. 

87. 
yo/A<£ois dcr/c^cracra KaTacrTopyois *K<\>pohirq. 

Thus Aphrodite wrought with bolts of love. 

88. 
fua yiyverai aix^oTepoav ox}/. 

One vision of two eyes is born. 



44 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Similia similibus. 
89. 
yvovSj on travTtoV elcriv a7roppoa[ } ocr a iyivovTO . . . 

Knowing that all things have their emanations. 

90. 
ax; y\vKv p,kv ykvKV fidpirrej Trucpov 8' iiil iriKpov 

opov&ev, 
o£i> o C7T o£u e/377, oaepov o eiro^eiTo oarjpwL. 

Thus Sweet seized Sweet, Bitter on Bitter flew, 
Sour sprung for Sour, and upon Hot rode Hot. 

91. 
Oivcoi . . . [xaWov ivdpOfiioPy avrap iXatcoi 
ovk iOikei, 

Water to wine more nearly is allied, 
But will not mix with oil. 

92. 
rwt KarTiripon p,ei)(64vTa tov ^oKkov . . . 

As when one mixes with the copper tin. 

93. 
fivcro'coi Be yXavKrjs kokkos /cara/Atcryerat aKrrjs. 

With flax is mixed the silvery elder's seed. 

The Black River Bottoms. 
94. 

et niger in fundo fluvii color exstat ab umbra , 
atque cavernosis itidem spectator in antris. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 45 

And the black color of the river's deeps 

Comes all from shade; and one may see the same 

In hollow caves. 

Eyes. 
95- 
Ku7r/xSo5 iv iraXdjjLrjLcrLv ore £vfi Trpcor i(j>vovTo, 

As, in the palms of Kypris shaped, they first 
Began to grow together . . . 

Bones. 
96. 
7) Se \0cov iirirjpos iv evo-Tepvois "yodvoKTi 
to) Svo tcov oktg) fiepecov Xd-^e N^crnSos cuyX^s, 
recra-apa S' e H<£aioToio* ra 8' ocrrea XevKa yivovro 
ApfAovLTjs KoWrjMTLv dpTjpora decnrecrirjOev. 

Kind Earth for her broad-breasted melting-pots, 
Of the eight parts got two of Lucid Nestis, 
And of Hephsestos four. Thence came white bones, 
Divinely joined by glue of Harmony. 



97. 
paXiv. 

The back-bone. 



Blood and Flesh. 
98. 

7J Se X0O)V TOVTOMTIV 1(77) <TVV€KVpCT€ /HCtXtOTa, 

'H^atOTCdi t oufSpcoi re koX aWept iraiJL<l>av6a)VTi) 
KvirpiSos 6pfjLLcr6€l(Ta reXciois iv \ip,iv€<rcriv 



46 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

€lt okiyov fxei^cov €?re 7r\e6vecr(riv i\d(r(r<ov 
€K tiov at fid T€ yivTO /ecu akXrjs ccSea aapKos. 

And after Earth within the perfect ports 
Of Aphrodite anchored lay, she met 
Almost in equal parts Hephsestos red, 
And Rain and Ether, the all-splendorous 
(Although the parts of Earth were sometimes less, 
Sometimes a little more than theirs). From these 
There came our blood and all the shapes of flesh. 

The Ear. 

99. 
K<o8<ov. ardpiavos o£os. 

A bell ... a fleshy twig. 

The Rushing Blood and the Clepsydra. 
ioo. 
&Se 8' dvanvel irdvTa kcu eKirvei' fraai Xt<£cu/u,oi 
aapKwv avpiyyes nvp,aTov Kara acofia reravrat, 
Kat <r<j)Li/ inl oto/uois ttvkivcus rirp'qvTai d\o£iv 
pivwv ar^ara repdpa Sia/i7repes, ojcttc <j>6vov fiev 
tcevOeWy al84pi 8* evTropirjv SidSoicri reTfirjcrOaL. • 

a>0ev €77610' oiroTav fiev a7rat£r)L ripev af/xa, 
aidrjp 7ra<j)\d£(ov Karaicrcrerai oiS/xart fidpyo)L y 
evre 8* dvaOpcoKTKrjL, ird\iv eKirviei, Gtcmep orav ttcus 
KXetfruSprji TraC^rjicri 8t€i7T€reo5 ^aX/coio- 
cure fiep avXov 7ropBp})v eV cvetSet X € P l 0€t<ra 
cis tJSaros fidTrrrjicri repev Se/tas dpyv<f)€OLO, 
ov8' cr* cs dyyocrS' ofifipos ccrep^erat, clXXct /luz> et/ayci 
depos oy/co? icrcoOe Treorcov €7rt Tpyj para 7rvKvd, 
cicrdfc aTTOcTTeydcrrji ttvkivov poov avrdp erreiTa 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 47 

iTvevfiaTos iWeurrovTos icrep^erai aurifiov v8o)p. 

&>5 S* aVT&>5, 60' vScop fJL€P €)(7)l KOLTa fUvdcCL \akKOV 
TTOpOflOV ^OJO-^cWo? )8pOT€Q)l XP ^ V^ ^"OpOLO, 

aldrjp S* e/cros ecra> Xekirjfxevos Ofifipov ipvK€L 

OLjJL(f)l TTvXaS l(T0fJLOlO 8uCTT7^€05, CLKpa KpOLTVVCDV) 

eiaoKe X ei P L H'^V 1 ' T ° r€ & av 7ra\iz>, tpTrakiv fj trpiv^ 
irvevfiaTos ijjL7ri7rTovTO<; vneicdeeL ai(rip,ov vScop. 
&>S 8* avrcos ripev aljxa /cXaSacrcro/iei/o*' Sta yvt(ov 
OTTTTore /jl€v TToXivopcrov aTrai^eie fu^o^Se, 
aiOepos ev9vs pevfia /carep^erac otS/ian Ovov, 
evre S' avadpcoicTKyjij ttolKiv eKirvizi 1<tov 6tti(T(TO), 

And thus does all breathe in and out. In all, 

Over the body's surface, bloodless tubes 

Of flesh are stretched, and, at their outlets, rifts 

Innumerable along the outmost rind 

Are bored; and so the blood remains within; 

For air, however, is cut a passage free. 

And when from here the thin blood backward 

streams, 
The air comes rushing in with roaring swell; 
But when again it forward leaps, the air 
In turn breathes out; as when a little girl 
Plays with a water-clock of gleaming bronze: 
As long as ever the opening of the pipe 
Is by her pretty fingers stopped and closed, 
And thuswise plunged within the yielding mass 
Of silvery water, can the Wet no more 
Get in the vessel; but the air's own weight, 
That falls inside against the countless holes, 
Keeps it in check, until the child at last 



48 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Uncovers and sets free the thickened air, 
When of a truth the water's destined bulk 
Gets in, as air gives way. Even so it is, 
When in the belly of the brazen clock 
The water lies, and the girl's finger tip 
Shuts pipe and tube: the air, that from without 
Comes pressing inward, holds the water back 
About the gateways of the gurgling neck, 
As the child keeps possession of the top, 
Until her hand will loosen, when amain — 
Quite contrariwise to way and wise before — 
Pours out and under the water's destined bulk, 
As air drops down and in. Even so it is 
With the thin blood that through our members 

drives : 
When hurrying back it streams to inward, then 
Amain a flow of air comes rushing on; 
But when again it forward leaps, the air 
In turn breathes out along the selfsame way. 

Scent. ♦ 

101. 
Kep/xaTa ur^peidiv fxekecov fxvKrrjpcnv ipevvatv, 
L^coovO ] ocrcr aireXenre noBcop a7ra\rji Trepl 7701171 . . . 

Sniffing with nostrils mites from wild beasts' limbs, 
Left by their feet along the tender grass .... 

102. 
<58e fiev ovv Trvoirjs re XeXoyxacn iravra koX oa-fxcov. 

And thus got all things share of breath and smells. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 49 

On the Psychic Life. 
103. 
rrjiSe fiev ovv loTrjTL Tv^s Tre(f)p6vr)K€v diravra. 

Thus all things think their though by will of Chance. 

104. 
koX Kaff ocrov pkv apaioTara £vv€Kvp<T€ ireaovTa. 

And in so far the lightest at their fall 
Do strike together .... 

105. 
ai/xaros Iv ireKayeacri TeOpafJLfAevr) avTiOopovTOs, 
rrji T€ vorjfxa /xaXtcrra /a/cX^cr/cerca dv6 ponroicnv' 
atfxa yap av0pd)7roi<; trepiKaphiov Icttl vorjfjua. 

In the blood-streams, back-leaping unto it, 
The heart is nourished, where prevails the power 
That men call thought; for lo the blood that stirs 
About the heart is man's controlling thought. 

106. 
7T/305 napebp yap fjLrjTis defercu dpOpcoiroLcnv. 

For unto men their thrift of reason grows, 
According to the body's thrift and state. 

107. 
€K tovtcdv [yap] Trdvra TreTnjyacriv apjjLocrOevTa 
/cat tovtois (frpoveovcTL /ecu rjhovT tJS* avi&vTai. 

For as of these commingled all things are, 
Even so through these men think, rejoice, or grieve. 



50 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

108. 
ocrcrov [8'] dWoLOL fjL€T€<f>vv } rocov dp cfacw aleC 
Kal to fypoveiv dXXoia TTapiaTavrai . . . 

As far as mortals change by day, so far 
By night their thinking changes . . . 

109. 
yaiqi /jl€p yap yaiav dircoTTafiev , vSoltl 8' vScup, 
aiuepi o aiuepa olov, arap irvpi irvp aibrjAov, 
(TTOpyrjv 8e crropyfji, yet/cos Se re veiKei \vypcoi. 

For 'tis through Earth that Earth we do behold, 
Through Ether, divine Ether luminous, 
Through Water, Water, through Fire, devouring 

Fire, 
And Love through Love, and Hate through doleful 

Hate. 

no. 
ei ydp k4v (T(f}' dhivfJMTiv viro TrpaTTihecro'iv epetcras 
€VfjL€P€(o<; KaQaprjicriv eVo77T€ verbis /leXenjicru/, 
ravra re or 01 fxd\a iravra hi alcopos irapio'ovTai, 
aXXa re 7rdXX' diro tcopS* efcr^creai* avrd ydp avfei t 
Tavr €t? rjOos eKacTToVy oinqi <£vcris icrrlv iKacrTcoi. 
€i 8e crv y dWoicov eVopefeai, ola /car' dvSpas 
fivpla SetXa ireXovrai a t d/x/SXwoucri fiepCfivas, 
7) O" a<f>ap e/cXeu/jovo-i 7repnr\ofxevoio ^povoio 
a<f>a>v avrcov iroOeovTa (£1X771/ eVi yivvav LKecrOai' 
iravra ydp laOi fypoviqo-iv ^X^lv /cat z/a5/z,aros alaap. 

For if reliant on a spirit firm, 
With inclination and endeavor pure, 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 5 1 

Thou wilt behold them, all these things shall be 
Forever thine, for service, and besides 
Thereof full many another shalt thou gain; 
For of themselves into that core they grow 
Of each man's nature, where his essence lies. 
But if for others thou wilt look and reach — 
Such empty treasures, myriad and vile, 
As men be after, which forevermore 
Blunt soul and keen desire — O then shall these 
Most swiftly leave thee as the seasons roll; 
For all their yearning is a quick return 
Unto their own primeval stock. For know: 
All things have fixed intent and share of thought. 

Dominion. 
in. 
(f>dpfjL<iKa 8' ocrcra yeyacri kolkuv koX yrjpaos a\/cap 
irevcrrji, iirel fjiovvcoL crot iyco Kpavico raSe 7rdVra. 
7rauo"€i5 8* dKafxarcoT/ aveficov ll4vos ol r iirl yalav 
opvvLLtvoi TTvoiai(TL KaTa<j)0ivv0ov(TLV apovpas' 
Kal TrdkiVj r\v 40€XrjLa"Oa ) irakivriTa irvevfxaTa iirdtjeLS- 
Orj&tis 8* i£ 6fi/3poLO Kekaivov Kaipiov av^/xdz/ 
dv8 pa>7TOLS , dijcreis Se /ecu i£ avyjidio depeiov 
pevfjLaTa SevSpeoOpeTTTd) rd r aXQipi vairjcrovrai^ 
dfets 8' ef 'AiSao KaratydiLiivov fieVos avSpos. 

And thou shalt master every drug that e'er 
Was made defense 'gainst sickness and old age — 
For thee alone all this I will fulfil — 
And thou shalt calm the might of tireless winds, 
That burst on earth and ruin seedlands; aye, 



52 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

And if thou wilt, shalt thou arouse the blasts, 
And watch them take their vengeance, wild and 

shrill, 
For that before thou cowedst them. Thou shalt 

change 
Black rain to drought, at seasons good for men, 
And the long drought of summer shalt thou change 
To torrents, nourishing the mountain trees, 
As down they stream from ether. And thou shalt 
From Hades beckon the might of perished men. 



THE PURIFICATIONS. 

The Healer and Prophet. 
112. 
o) <J)l\oL) 6l fxeya dcrrv Kara £av6ov ' AKpdyavros 
vaier dv OLKpa 7rdXeos, dyaOcov [xeXeSrjfjLOpes ipyav, 
tjeCvcov alhoioi Xifxeves fcaKor^ros direipoi^ 
pauper • iyco §' vpZv debs dfx/3poTo<;, ovk4tl dvrjTos 
TrcoXevfJiai fxerd iracri rerifteVo?, cocrnep eot/ca, 
rcupiai? re TrepiareirTos ari^ecriv re OakeLois* 
rolaiv afA [evr'] av LKcofiai is dcrrea TrjXeddovTa, 
avopacriv rjoe ywaigi, crep^o/Aou,- ol o a/x e7rozrai. 

[JLVpLOL i£ep€OVT€S y 07T7JL 7T/30S KCpSoS OLTapTTOSy 

ol fxkv fjLavTocrvvecov Ke^prj/jievoLy ol S' iirl vovo~an> 

iravToio)v eirudowo kkveiv evrjKea fidt;iv 

hiqpbv Srj )(a\eiro2o'i ireTrap/JLevoi [dpft /xdyoicrii/] . 

Ye friends, who in the mighty city dwell 
Along the yellow Acragas hard by 
The Acropolis, ye stewards of good works, 
The stranger's refuge venerable and kind, 
All hail, O friends! But unto ye I walk 
As god immortal now, no more as man, 
On all sides honored fittingly and well, 
Crowned both with fillets and with flowering 

wreaths. 
When with my throngs of men and women I come 



54 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

To thriving cities, I am sought by prayers, 
And thousands follow me that they may ask 
The path to weal and vantage, craving some 
For oracles, whilst others seek to hear 
A healing word 'gainst many a foul disease 
That all too long hath pierced with grievous pains. 

113. 
dXXa tl toio-S' iTTLK€L[x wcrel peya xpV^ Ti irod<ro'a>v, 
el 0vt]T(ov irepieifii iro\v(f>0epe(ov avdpamcov; 

Yet why urge more, as if forsooth I wrought 

Some big affair — do I not far excel 

The mortals round me, doomed to many deaths! 

114. 
Z <£iXoi, otSa [lev ovveK d\r)0euq 7rdpa iivOois, 
ovs ey<o e^epeco- fiaKa o apyakerj [^J ye reruAcrat 
dvhpd(TL Kal Svcr^Xos enl <f)pepa 7Ucra.os opyarj, 

O friends, I know indeed in these the words 
Which I will speak that very truth abides; 
But greatly troublous unto men alway 
Hath been the emulous struggle of Belief 
To reach their bosoms. 

Expiation and Metempsychosis. 

€<ttlv 9 AvdyK7}<; xprjfxa, 0ewv \pTJ(j>L(rna ira\ai6v ) 
dtSiovj irkareeacri KaTecr<j)p7)yLcrfJLevov op/cots* 
evre tis dfjLir\aKLT)i<ri <J>6vcol <j>£\a yvla pnjvrjL, 
[Nci/cet 0'] os K€ intopKov afxaprijcras inofioa-ayjij 
OaCixoves olre /xa/cpaiWos XeXa^acrt /3lolo } 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 55 

T/)ts jjllv fjLvpias upas airo fiaKoipcov d\d\rj(rdaL } 
<j>vofji€pov<s iravrola Std ^povov etSea Qvqrcov 
dpyakias /3lotolo fieTaWdcrcrovTa /ceXevflovs. 
alOipiov fiev yap crcfre /uteVos irovrovhe Stco/cet, 
ttovtos 8* €5 xOovos o58as d7r€7TTvcre, yata 8' e? avyds 
^eXtov (fxieOovTos , 6 8' aWepos ififiaXe StVats- 
aXXos 8' ef aXXov Se^crat, crrvyiovcri Se 7toVt€9. 
tcop /cat cya> iw et/u, <f)vyds Oeodev /cat dXifri}?, 
Nct/cet fiaipofiepcoi ttictvvo*;. 

There is a word of Fate, an old decree 
And everlasting of the gods, made fast 
With amplest oaths, that whosoe'er of those 
Far spirits, with their lot of age-long life, 
Do foul their limbs with slaughter in offense, 
Or swear forsworn, as failing of their pledge, 
Shall wander thrice ten thousand weary years 
Far from the Blessed, and be born through time 
In various shapes of mortal kind, which change 
Ever and ever troublous paths of life : 
For now Air hunts them onward to the Sea; 
Now the wild Sea disgorges them on Land; 
Now Earth will spue toward beams of radiant Sun ; 
Whence he will toss them back to whirling Air — 
Each gets from other what they all abhor. 
And in that brood I too am numbered now, 
A fugitive and vagabond from heaven, 
As one obedient unto raving Strife. 

n6. 
orvyeet SvcrTXrjTov 'Avdyicrjv. 

Charis abhors intolerable Fate. 



56 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

117. 
77S77 ydp ttot iyco yev6p,y)v Kovpos re Koprj re 
ddjjLvos t olcovos re /cat efaXos eXXo7T09 l\0v^. 

For I was once already boy and girl, 
Thicket and bird, and mute fish in the waves. 

This Earth of Ours. 
118. 
/cXavcrct re /cat kcdkvctcl tSaw davvqOea yvpov. 

I wept and wailed, beholding the strange place. 

119. 
i£ 01175 TijArjs T€ /cat ocrcrov /x/^/ceos SXfiov 
&)8e [7T€cra)^ /caret yatai>] dvacrTpi^opiai jxera OvtjtoIs. 

From what large honor and what height of bliss 
Am I here fallen to move with mortal kind! 

This Sky-Roofed World. 
120. 

7j\v0OfJL€V TO S' VTT OLVTpOV VTTOCTTeyOV . . . 

And then we came unto a roofed cave. 

* 

This Vale of Tears. 
121. 

drepnea -ftvpov, 
€i/0a <I>6Vos re Kotos T€ /cat dWcov eOvea Krjpwp 
avxprjpaC T€ voVot /cat crates ipya re pevcrrd 
Attjs av XeLfxwva Kara, ctkotos rjXdcrKovcrw, 

A joyless land, 
Where Slaughter and Grudge, and troops of Dooms 
besides, 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 57 

Where shriveled Diseases and obscene Decays, 
And Labors, burdened with the water-jars, 
Do wander down the dismal meads of Bane. 



122. 
€l>0* rjCTOLV X0OVL7) T€ KCU 'HXiOTHJ TaVOLCOTTlSy 

ArjpCs 0* Gu/taroccrcra /cat 'Apixovir) Oefiepcoms, 
KaXXior&i t Al(rxpV T€, @d<ycra re Ar)vaLrj tc, 
Nt7/i€/3tt;s t ipoecrcra fieXdyKovpos r 'Acra^eia. 

There was Earth-mother, 
There the far-peering Virgin of the Sun, 
And bloody Quarrel and grave-eyed Harmony, 
And there was Fair and Foul and Speed and Late, 
Black-haired Confusion and sweet maiden Sure. 

123. 
&vcrco re &0Lp,evr) re, /cat ILvvair) kclI *Ey€pcris, 

KWCO T ' A(TT€fJL<l)1]S T€, 7roXuCTTe<£cU>OS T€ McytCTTOJ 

koX Qopvr\ , 2o)7n7 re koX 9 Ofi<f>aCyj . . . 

Growth and Decay, and Sleep and Roused-from- 

sleep, 
Action and Rest, and Glory many-crowned, 
And Filth, and Silence and prevailing Voice. 

124. 
to 7ro7roi,, 0*) 8ei\bv Ovqrcov yevoSy a> SvcrdvoXfioV) 
tolcov e/c t epihoiv £k re <ttovcv)(.q)v iy€vecr0e. 

O mortal kind! O ye poor sons of grief! 
From such contentions and such sighings sprung! 



58 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

The Changing Forms. 
125. 
€K fxev yap ^cocov eriuei veKpa eioe a/xeipw^. 

For from the living he the dead did make, 
Their forms exchanging. . . 

126. 
aapKcov aWoyvwTi TTepicrriWovcra ^wwi. 

All things doth Nature change, enwrapping souls 
In unfamiliar tunics of the flesh. 

127. 

Iv Oijpecrai XeovTes opetXc^ee? xafxaievvai 
yiyvovrai) hd^>vai S* ivl SevSpecrw rjVKopoicriv. 

The worthiest dwellings for the souls of men, 
When 'tis their lot to live in forms of brutes, 
Are tawny lions, those great beasts that sleep 
I Couched on the black earth up the mountain side ; 
But, when in forms of beautiful plumed trees 
They live, the bays are worthiest for souls. 

The Golden Age. 
128. 
ovoe Ti? tjv Keivoicriv *Apr)<s Oebs ovSe KvSot/ids 
ovSe Zeus ftacriXevs ouSe Kpovos ovSe IIocreiSa>i>, 
dXXa KvVpi? jSacri'Xeia. 

tt\v ol y evcrefieecrcnv dyakjxacriv IXdcrKovro 
ypairroLs re £coioL<ri pLvpoicri re ScuSaXedS/iois 
(TfJivpwjs r aKpjJTov Ovcriais \ifiavov re 0vco8ovs y 
govOa)VT€ o"7Tovhas fteXnw piTTTOvres es ouSas- 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 59 

TCLvpcov 8' aKpiJTOio-i (ftovois ov Severo ^8o>/i,os, 
a\\a fjLvcros tovt iaKev Iv avB poyiroicri fiiyicrTOV) 
OvfJibv aTTOppaicroLVTas iveSfjievai rjea yvla. 

Nor unto them 
Was any Ares god, nor Kydoimos, 
Nor Zeus, the king of gods, nor Kronos, nor 
Poseidon then, but only Kypris queen. . . 
Whom they with holy gifts were wont to appease, 
With painted images of living things, 
With costly unguents of rich fragrancy, 
With gentle sacrifice of taintless myrrh, 
With redolent fumes of frankincense, of old 
Pouring libations out upon the ground 
Of yellow honey; not then with unmixed blood 
Of many bulls was ever an altar stained; 
But among men 'twas sacrilege most vile 
To reave of life and eat the goodly limbs. 

The Sage. 
129. 

rjv Se tis iv Keivoiciv dvrjp 7repifc)cn,a etScus, 
os St) ixtjkkttov irpaTTihoiv iKTrjaaro tt\ovtov 
iravToioiv re fjidXicTTa ao(f>(t)v iiwjpavos epyav 
oiriTOTe yap iracriqicriv bpi^aiTO Trpair&ecrcriv, 
peV 6 ye rcov ovtcov ttolvt(dv XevaorecrKev €k<kttov 
/cat re Se/c 5 av8 p&TTQiv /cat r €iko<tiv aicovecrcriv . 

Was one among them there, a supreme man 
Of vastest knowledge, gainer of large wealth 
Of understanding, and chief master wise 
Of diverse works of skill and wisdom all; 



60 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

For whensoe'er he sought with scope and reach 
Of understanding, then 'twas his to view 
Readily each and every thing that e'er 
In ten or twenty human ages throve. 

Those Days. 
130. 
rjcrav Se KTiXa iravTa /cat avO pcoiroicri rrpocrqirq^ 
drjpis t olovoi re, fyikotypocrvvr) re SeSijei, 

All things were tame, and gentle toward men, 
All beasts and birds, and friendship's flame blew 
fair. 

The Divine. 
131. 
el yap i<j>7]fiepL(ov kveKev twos, a/i^pore Mover a, 
rjfieTepas /jteXeras [fxeXe tol] Sea ^povrCBos iXOeiVj 
ev^ofievcoi vvv avre 7raptcrracro, KaXXto7reta, 
afx(j)l Be&v fJLcucdpoDv ayaOov \6yov ifJL<f>aivovri. 

For since, O Muse undying, thou couldst deign 
To give for these our paltry human cares 
A gateway to thy soul, O now much more, 
Kalliope of the beautiful dear voice, 
Be near me now beseeching! — whilst I speak 
Excelling thoughts about the blessed gods. 

132. 
oX^ios, 65 0eio)v TrpairiZaiv iKTijcraro 7r\ovrov y 
OetAos 8', 8>i cTKoroecrcra deuv iripi Sofa fxefjurjXev. 

O well with him who hath secured his wealth 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 6l 

Of thoughts divine, O wretched he whose care 
Is shadowy speculation on the gods! 

133. 
ovk £<ttlv ireXdcraaOai Iv 6<f)0a\[JLoi(riv i<f>iKTov 
rjfieTepoLS rj X 6 / 00 "*- h a P& v i rjnrip T€ peyicrTY) 
irtiOovs avd po)Troi<riv d/iafiros cts fypiva mirret. 

We may not bring It near us with our eyes, 
We may not grasp It with our human hands, 
With neither hands nor eyes, those highways twain 
Whereby Belief drops into minds of men. 

134. 
ouSe yap dphpo^irji KetyaXrji Kara yvla fce/caarcu., 
ov fxkv airaX vorroio Svo /cXdSoi diacrovTaij 
ov 7roSe5, ov 6od yovva, ov fxijhea \a)(VT]€VTa, 
dXXd <f)p7jv leprj teal d0ea*<£aTos errkero fiovvov y 
<f>povTLO'L Koapov diravTa KaTata'O'ovcra Oorjucriv. 

For 'tis adorned with never a manlike head, 

For from Its back there swing no branching arms, 

It hath no feet nor knees alert, nor form 

Of tufted secret member; but It lives, 

One holy mind, ineffable, alone, 

And with swift thoughts darts through the universe. 

135. 
dWd to fjuev irdvTcov vo\li\lov Sid r evpvfieSovros 
aWepos rjV€K.4(t)s rerarat hid r dnXerov avyfjs. 

But the wide law of all extends throughout 
Broad-ruling ether and the vast white sky. 



62 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Animal Sacrifice. 
136. 
ov Trover ecrde (frovoio Svcrrjxeos; ovk ecropare 

aWtfXoVS 8dlTTOVT€S aK7)$€ir)L(Tl voolo; 

Will ye not cease from this great din of slaughter ? 
Will ye not see, unthinking as ye are, 
How ye rend one another unbeknown? 

137. 
fjLOp(f)r)v 8' dWdtjavTa iraTrjp <j)i\ov vlov aeipas 
cr<£a£ei e7T€i>xo/A€i>os fjueya vrjinos' ol 8' iiropevvTai 
XicraofxevoL dvovraSy 6 8' av vtjkovcttos 6/io/cXeW 
<r(j)d£a<s iv [leydpoLcn KaKrjv dXeyvvaro Satra. 
a)S 8' aureus Trarip vlbs i\(t)i/ /ecu fxrjrepa 7rcu8es 
Bvpiov dirop paid avre <£i\as Kara crap/cas ibovcriv. 

The father lifteth for the stroke of death 
His own dear son within a changed form, 
And slits his throat for sacrifice with prayers — » 
A blinded fool! But the poor victims press, 
Imploring their destroyers. Yet not one 
But still is deaf to piteous moan and wail. 
Each slits the throat and in his halls prepares 
A horrible repast. Thus too the son 
Seizes the father, children the mother seize, 
And reave of life and eath their own dear flesh. 

138. 
XolXkcol a7ro \jjv)(rjv dpvcras 

Drawing the soul as water with the bronze. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 63 

139. 
oip otl ov 7rp6(T0ev fie StwXecre vrjXees ^/xa/>, 
irpXv ct)(4t\C epyai fiopas 7repl ^etXecrt ft^rtVacr^ai. 

Ah woe is me ! that never a pitiless day- 
Destroyed me long ago, ere yet my lips 
Did meditate this feeding's monstrous crime! 

Taboos. 
140. 

Withhold your hands from leaves of Phoebus' tree ! 

141. 
SeiXot, irapS&Xoi, Kvdfjbcov airo ^ei/scxs e^ecr^ai. 

Ye wretched, O ye altogether wretched, 
Your hands from beans withhold! 

Sin. 

142. 
rbv o* ovt dp re A105 reyeoi 80/1,01 alyio\oio 
re[p7rot] av ovSe [ai^9 c E]/c[ar]i7§ reyos [tJXito- 
ttowov\ . 

Neither roofed halls of aegis-holding Zeus 
Delight it, nor dire Hecate's venging house. 

143. 
Kprjvdo)]/ <X7ro tt4vt€ TafxovT \_iv~\ dreipii )(a\Km . . . 

Scooping from fountains five with lasting bronze. 



64 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

144. 
pr)OT€V(TCU Ka/COTT/TOS. 

O fast from evil-doing. 

145. 
Toiydproi xa\€7rrjicnv akvovres KaKOTqcnv 
owrore 8eikaC<ov dyioiv XaxfrijcreTe Ovpiov. 

Since wildered by your evil-doings huge, 
Ne'er shall ye free your life from heavy pains. 



The Progression of Rebirth. 
146. 

€t5 Se reXos ixdvreis re koX v^vott6\ol koX IrjrpoC 
Kal TTpOfjLOi avO payrroicriv iTTi^Oovioiai 7re\o*T<u. 
evdev avafi\a<TTovcri Oeol TLfxrjicn <f>4pi<TToi. 

And seers at last, and singers of high hymns. 
Physicians sage, and chiefs o'er earth-born men 
Shall they become, whence germinate the gods, 
The excellent in honors. 

147. 
aOavdrois a\\oi<nv ofieorioi avroTpdire^OLj 
€v*/i€$ dvSpeCcov a^eW, aTroKXrjpoLy arci/scis. 

At hearth and feast companioned with the immor- 
tals, 
From human pains and wasting eld immune. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 65 

Last Echoes of a Song Half Lost 
148. 

dfi(j>Ll3p6rrjv ^6 ova. 
Man-enfolding Earth. 

149. 
ve^ekrjyeptrq v . 

The cloud-collecting. 



150. 
woXvaifJiaTov rjTrap. 

The blood-full liver. 

151. 

£€tS&>pos. 

Life-giving. 

152. 
yrjpas rjfiepas. 

Evening, the day's old age. 

153. 
fiavfico. 

The belly. 

153a. 
iv €7rra eySSo/iacrii/. 

In seven times seven days. 



NOTES. 

ON NATURE. 

Fr. I. Pausanias is the friend to whom Empedocles addresses himself 
throughout the poem On Nature. Matthew Arnold has made 
him a character in Empedocles on Aetna. 

Fr. 2. Narrow ways: these are the pores (Tropoi) into which pass the 
emanations (dvoppoai) from things (cf. fr. 89) ; whence man's 
portion — such as it is — of perception and knowledge (cf. the 
simulacra of Lucr. IV). "Ways" (ira\d/xai) are literally "de- 
vices"; but the notion of small passages is suggested by 
areivwiroL ; cf. fr. 4. 

Their little share of life : a note of sadness struck more than 
once by Empedocles, and one of the few elements in common 
with the personage in Arnold's poem. Cf. the comments on 
life and man in the Gnomic writers. 
Like smoke: cf. 
"Ergo dissolui quoque convenit omnem animai 
naturam, ceu fumus, in altas aeris auras." 

Lucr., Ill, 455-6. 
Than mortal ken may span: more literally, "than mortal 
skill may have power to move" (tywpev). 

Fr. 3. Addressed to Pausanias; so elsewhere. 

Fr. 4. Their madness : this evidently refers to the over-bold specu- 
lations of Parmenides and other philosophers. 

Meek Piety's: lit, "from [the realm of] Piety." 

By every way of knowing: by every passage, or device 
(TraXd/x-Q) ; cf. fr. 2. Empedocles, unlike Parmenides, affirms 
the relative trustworthiness of the senses. 

Trust sight no more than hearing, etc. : here E. may imply 
a distinction between the understanding and sense perception; 



68 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

or he may consider, with the sensationalists of modern psy- 
chology, one sense as acting as a check on another, without 
realizing that there must still be something over and above 
them which weighs and decides. His theory of knowledge 
was apparently little developed. Aristotle (De an., Ill, 3, 427a 
21-29) says that E. drew no distinction between voeiv or (ppovelv 
and aiffO&veadai. 

Note by all ways : "ways" here translates nopos, 'road,' 'pore.' 

The Roman critic (Hor., De arte poetica, 134 ff.) warns the 
poet against a beginning that promises bigger things than the 
work bears out, and he might have chided Empedocles with 
the contrary fault; for the reverent attitude, reflected in this 
fragment, soon gives way to dogmatism and grandiloquence, 
as the old philosopher's soul thrills to his large thought and 
the roll of his splendid verse. Later writers on the Unknow- 
able and the limitations of human knowledge have not always 
been more consistent. 

Fr. 5. The High and Strong: "either philosophers or doctrines or 
the gods Love and Strife." Diels, PPF. 

Sifted through thy soul : an illustration of the dependence of 
a poetic value on an emendation; if, instead of Siaaoydivros 
(FV), we read dtaTfirjdipTos (PPF), the translation might run: 

"Deep in thine inward parts dividing thought," 
a very different, and to me less effective figure. 

Fr. 6. The four-fold root: the four elements, but there is some dis- 
agreement as to the interpretation of the symbols that follow. 
Nestis is presumably a Sicilian water divinity, identified by 
van ten Brink and Heyne with Proserpina, and the context 
shows that she symbolizes water. Zeller (p. 759) makes Zeus 
fire, Here air, and Aidoneus (Dis) earth; Burnet (p. 243) 
and Bodrero (p. 78), following Knatz, make Zeus air, Here 
earth, and Aidoneus fire. I am not persuaded that any peculiar 
theory is implied in this mythology, as Bodrero attempts to 
prove (cf. also Gomperz, p. 245) ; at the most E. is hinting at 
the elements as eternal (the "established gods'* of fr. 17) and 
primary— "the four-fold root of all things." Moreover, E. 
was poet no less than philosopher. 

Earlier philosophy had recognized the materials which E. 
calls the four elements, though it had never made them Grunt- 
stoffe. Cf. also the "flowing" (like water), the "mistiform" 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 69 

(like air) and the dry mist (like fire) of Heraclitus; and the 
contrasted warm and cold which Anaximander conceived as 
differentiated from the aireipov. (The five- fold division of Phi- 
lolaos was probably derived from E.) E. was the first ab- 
solute pluralist ; preceding thinkers, Thales, Pythagoras, Hera- 
clitus, Parmenides, etc., had made ultimate reality a material 
One. Not until Plato have we an approach to an idealistic 
monism (cf. Burnet, p. 207-8). 

Fr. 7. Elements (oroi^eta), supplied here and elsewhere, is nowhere 
preserved to us by E., and was apparently first used in philos- 
ophy by Plato. Cf. Zeller, p. 759. 

Fr. 8. End in ruinous death: this is not here enlarged upon as is 
the idea of birth; it is, however, but the other aspect of the 
latter: the interchange of the mixed implies a scattering as 
well, the dissolution of the old to form the new; at least I 
take it so. Cf. fr. 17. 

Fr. 9. In man, etc.: properly, "in the case of man." 

/ too assent to use : how many philosophers have felt them- 
selves balked in the perfect expression of their thought by 
having in their vocabulary to "assent to use." 

Fr. 10. Avenging Death: evidently used in a connection similar to 
"doom of death" in fr. 9 (cf. Plut. quoted by Diels, PPF). 
"ut 'A6r)va dKoiris Lycoph. 935 est sceleris vindex, sic Mors 
peccatorum ultrix." Diels, PPF. 

Fr. 1 1- 12. The doctrine (and in part the words) of Parmenides, 
afterwards developed with such energy and imagination and 
observation of the processes of the sensible universe in Book 
I of the De Natura Rerum. 

For there 'twill be, etc.: perhaps a more literal rendering 
would make the meaning more obvious to some readers : "For 
every time will it [i. e., any given object] be right there, where 
any one every time puts it." 

Fr. 13-14. E. held with Parmenides that the world is a Plenum, in- 
capable either of excess or of deficiency. 

Fr. 15. "But that there is here any affirmation of the immortality of 
the psychic life (Siebeck, Gesch. d. Psychol, I, 53, 267) I do 
not believe. Pporol denotes with E. not only men but all per- 



JO THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

ishable beings, and these are eternal only in so far as their 
elements are eternal." Zeller, p. 756. 

Diels, however, renders (FV) Pporol "wir Sterbliche"; in- 
deed, as "men" is evidently the understood subject of KaXiovat 
('call'), it must also be the subject of /3i«<ri ('live'), and it is 
but natural to construe jSporot below in the same sense. But 
there is still presumably no reference to the immortality of the 
soul. Thought and feeling with E. are part of the physical 
system; and "our being" is but a physical being, to which, 
however, as to every thing, the thought of fr. 11 must apply. 
"Compacted" and "loosed apart" refer to the mingling and 
the scattering of the body's constituent elements. 

Fr. 16. Love and Hate: under varying names, "Lovingness" 
and "Strife," "Aphrodite" and "Wrath," etc., conceived by K 
as the dynamic powers of the universe. Many details of the 
conception are still in dispute (cf. Zeller, p. 771 ; Tannery, p. 
306). Efforts to relate them genetically to the Isis and Typhon 
of the Egyptian, or to the Ormuzd and Ahriman of the Persian 
seem to me unsuccessful ; one is rather reminded of the "War" 
and "Harmonia" of Heraclitus. 

Fr. 17. The longest, the most significant, and the most difficult of 
the fragments; preserved by Simplicius. "The One" is the 
Sphere; "the Many/' as we see from line 18 (of the Greek 
text), are the four elements. 

Two-fold the birth, two-fold the death of things: a dark 
saying; I paraphrase a Latin note of Diels, PPF: 

"The wheel of nature runs a double course, one from the 
complete separation of the four elements to the union of the 
Sphere, the other from the Sphere to the separation of the 
elements. In either course exist the certainties of creation 
and dissolution: for, as the elements come together, their 
meeting (avpodos) brings things to birth, but when the tend- 
ency to mingle has finally increased so far as to form the 
Sphere again, the same meeting is found at last to be no less 
the source of their destruction (thus vvvodos rUrei t' dXe/cei re) ; 
again, as the elements begin to separate from the Sphere (5ta- 
(pvofievuv) , things are born into an orderly arrangement of 
their elements, until, with the increased tendency toward sepa- 
ration, everything at last flies apart (S^tttt?) and perishes." 
Cf. fr. 26. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. Jl 

It must be noted that, when Love is supreme, we have the 
harmony of the Sphere; when Hate is supreme, a complete 
dissipation. In neither state is anything like our world pos- 
sible: we must be in either one or the other intermediate 
period, where the elements are making headway (i) away 
from the Sphere toward dissipation, or (2) from dissipation 
toward the Sphere. Cf. Burnet (p. 248 ff.), who believes we 
are in the former period. 

Anaximander (but cf. Burnet, p. 64) and Heraclitus and the 
Pythagoreans seem also to have taught a succession of worlds 
born and destroyed; and a similar thought is implicit in the 
nebular hypothesis of modern astronomy. 

So far have they a birth, etc.: "they" refers, I believe, to 
the four elements : mortal, if viewed as parts of the perishable 
things of our world ; immortal and unshaken as gods (cf. the 
mythological names of fr. 6), if viewed as the primeval sources 
of all things and as subject to the law of the four cosmic 
periods — eternal interchange and revolution round "the circle 
of the world." 

And shut from them apart, etc.: both Strife and Love are 
apparently conceived as material, not simply as dynamic prin- 
ciples. The early philosophers were a long way from the in- 
corporealities and abstractions of modern science (cf. Burnet, 
p. 246) ; and even the Pythagorean numbers were by no means 
sharply distinguished from their concrete expression in geo- 
metrical forms and material things, and even the "Nous" of 
Anaxagoras was mindstuff in space. Thus Strife is in equi- 
poise, i. e., everywhere of the same weight (draKavrov s'entend 
de l'equilibre des poids. Tannery, p. 305), and at this moment 
somewhere outside the Sphere; while Love, equal in length 
and breadth, is situated inside, and 

"speeds revolving in the elements." 

Tannery (p. 306) regards them as "media endowed with 
special properties and able to displace each other, media in 
the bosom of which are plunged the corporeal molecules, but 
which are still conceived to be as material as the imponderable 
ether of the modern physicists," i. e., almost as diffused 
gases; but it is very doubtful if Empedocles had such a defi- 
nite thought in mind. 

'Tis she inborn, etc.: whatever the difficulties in thinking 
out the thought with consistency of detail, there is a freshness 



J2 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

and a grandeur in this identification of a cosmic principle, or 
material, with a passion, or a faculty, in the life of man. E. 
makes a similar identification of Hate (cf. fr. 109). Schopen- 
hauer's identification of the dynamic principle of all nature 
with "will" offers a modern analogy. Nor should we overlook 
the prior significance in the very choice of the names, drawn 
from the passions of men to stand for activities as funda- 
mental and wide as the universe. 

I think, by the way, that E.'s language here makes it possible 
to interpret love ("thoughts of love," etc.) as more than the 
physiological passion of sex for sex, with which it is usually- 
identified by the commentators. 

Behold these elements own equal strength,- etc. : E. conceives 
the elements as each alike in quantity and strength, each alike 
primeval; but each, with its peculiar function and appearance 
(cf. E's specific descriptive adjectives used in naming the ele- 
ments), qualitatively distinct from the others. Cf. Zeller, p. 
762. But what he means by affirming that 

"each " 
Prevailing conquers with revolving time" 

is not, to me at least, perfectly clear. He speaks nowhere of 
an age of Air, or Earth, or Water; and the peculiar agencies 
he imputes to fire (see infra) are apparently at all times at 
work, without ever ending in fire's dominating all, as in the 
common interpretation of the system of Heraclitus. Possibly 
he refers to the temporal sequence in the separation of the 
elements from the Sphere (for which see Zeller, p. 787), or 
simply to the fact that now this, now that created object in 
natura rerum has more of this or more of that element in its 
composition. Cf. fr. 26. In Chinese philosophy "The elements 
are supposed to conquer one another according to a definite 
law. We are told that wood conquers earth, earth conquers 
water, water conquers fire, fire conquers metal, and metal con- 
quers wood." Paul Carus, Chinese Thought, 1007, p. 47. But 
there is nothing in E.'s thought that seems to correspond. 

Through one another: an allusion to the theory of the pores, 
the precursor of Atomism. Cf. Zeller, p. 767. 

Fr. 18. The translator has made no effort to be consistent in render- 
ing <t>t\iy and <f>i\6rijs into English by different words. There 
is evidently no vital difference of meaning in the Greek as 
used by E. Cf. Plut, quoted by Diels, PPF. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPF-DOCLES. 73 

Fr. 19. With reference here to water. 

Fr. 20. Line 1 has been supplied by the translator. Cf. with this 
fragment fr. 57-62. 

Fr. 31. But come, etc. : i. e., 'observe if what I have already said 
does not give a sufficiently clear description of the form, or 
physical characteristics of the elements' — "si quid materiae 
etiam in priore numeratione elementorum relictum erat formae 
explicandae." Diels, PPF. 

The Sun : see note on fr. 41. 

The eternal Stars : E. conceived the fixed stars as fastened to 
the vault (of the dark hemisphere), the planets as free, and 
both as formed of fire separated from the air. 

The sun and the stars apparently correspond to the fiery 
element, rain to the watery, and earth to the earthy, con- 
sidered here as visible parts of the present universe no less 
than as the sources thereof. Air seems to be unrepresented, 
unless it be suggested by "glowing radiance." I am inclined 
to take the phrase merely as a bit of poetry — it is the radiance 
of the night, hardly the bright heaven, the aery expanse of 
day. But were it so interpreted, one might well note that E. 
regularly uses aWrip ('sky') and once ovpavos ('heaven') for 
air, and might compare Lucretius' 

"Unde aether sidera pascit" (Bk. I, 231), 
and Virgil's 

"Polus dum sidera pascit" (Bk. I, 608)— 

phrases which, however, are not, as I understand them, based 
on an astronomy like that of Empedocles. 

The green : the Greek is 6i\v/xva, 'the beginnings of things/ 
the 'semina rerum' of Lucretius (Liddell& Scott), here possibly 
with some suggestion of the growth of the vegetable world 
(hence the translation "green"). There is assuredly no ref- 
erence to the primeval "lumps with rude impress" of fr. 62, 
for E. is here speaking of things as they are. 

The long-lived gods: the gods in the On Nature of Em- 
pedocles are part of the perishable world, formed, like tree or 
fish, out of the elements ; hence, though "in honors excellent," 
they are not immortal. 



74 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Fr. 22. Heaven : air ; cf. note to f r. 21. 

For amber Sun, etc. : the mutual attraction of the like and 
the repulsion of the unlike are here referred respectively to 
the action of Love and Hate ; but elsewhere in his system Em- 
pedocles leaves us much in the dark on the matter. Cf. Gom- 
perz, p. 237. Tannery, p. 308. Also Burnet, p. 247. 

Things that are most apt to mix: where the emanations of 
the one are peculiarly well fitted to the pores of the other. Cf. 
Burnet, 247 ff. 

Fr. 23. mixing harmonious, etc. : Gomperz (p. 233) sees a reference in 
this fragment to the four primary colors, as analogous to the 
four elements. The simile were then doubly striking. 

The goddess: lit, 'divinity' (feov), undoubtedly the Muse, 
mentioned several times by E. (cf. fr. 4, 5, 131) ; important 
as a hint that the author is poet as well as philosopher, and 
may use language not always literally ki accord with his sys- 
tem. 

Fr. 25. One may regret that Empedocles has not left us more such 
pithy sayings. 

Cf. 

"A reasonable reason, 
If good, is none the worse for repetition." 

Byron, Don Juan, XV, 51. 

Fr. 26. In turn they conquer: "they" means the elements; cf. note 
on fr. 17. 

olden Fate: fate is mentioned several times by E., and can 
only mean, I think, the universal law of being. 

Whiles in fair order: Gr. eh ha Koa/xov; it refers to that 
orderly arrangement of the elements which results, as the uni- 
fying process goes on, in the dead harmony of the Sphere. 

Whiles rent asunder: this refers to the process which ends 
in the complete dissipation of the elements and the destruction 
of all things. 

Till they, when grown succumb: i.e., as I understand it, 

till, after having completed the process of coming together 
again which ends in the Sphere, they again begin the process 
of separating which ends in dissipation. Cf. f r. 17 ; and Zeller 
(P- 77&)> who might question this interpretation. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 75 

"Go under and succumb" is in the Greek virivepde ytvrirai, a 
phrase found in Theognis (1. 843) : 

" 'AXV OTrorav Ka9virep6ev iwv vvivepde yivr)rai, 
tovtolkls otKad' 1/J.ev wavad/ievoi -rroaios," 

where the event is, however, hardly of the same cosmic im- 
portance. 

Fr. 27. There: in the Sphere, where one could distinguish none of 
the elements and none of the forms of things. One notes that 
the passage makes no mention of air, and wonders if a line 
may have been lost. The Sphere corresponds somewhat to 
the "Being" of Parmenides, which was spherical and im- 
movable; but the four elements, though in this sphere visibly 
indistinguishable, must still maintain their respective qual- 
ities. For various ancient interpretations of the nature of the 
Sphere, cf. Burnet, p. 250 fT. 

In the close recess of Harmony: "in Concordiae latebris 
fixus tenetur." Diels, PPF. A poetic figure for the idea that 
the Sphere is completely under the reign of Love. Possibly 
"the close recess" is but the "surrounding solitude" below, and 
is not, perhaps, to be taken any more literally than the refer- 
ence to the Sphere as "exultant." If examined narrowly, 
however, difficulties must be admitted. The figure may be 
Pythagorean. Harmony, then, were the personified "fitting," 
"adaptation," and would refer to the closely fitted parts of the 
universe, when brought together by Love. Hvkipos ('close- 
fitted,' 'compact') were itself perfectly appropriate; but Kpv<f>o$ f 
as a noun (meaning, as it seems to here, 'a hidden place') 
would confuse the thought, for the figure, if Pythagorean, 
requires us to conceive "Harmony" as pervading the Sphere, 
not as hiding it somewhere in space. Moreover, one would 
expect to find tcptyos applied to the Sphere rather than to the 
recess. Prof. Newbold in a letter suggests Kpv<a for «p«50w, i. e., 
'in Harmonia's close-binding frost/ as "better than the MS 
reading, though not altogether satisfactory." 

Bodrero assumes (p. 135) that Harmony "is not Love alone, 
but the union of Love and Hate, their equilibrium"; but his 
whole interpretation of Empedocles is very far from that of 
all other scholars, and is usually, as here, of little service to 
the point of view adopted in these pages. 

The rounded Sphere: This primeval Sphere must never be 
confounded with E.'s present spherical universe, composed, as 



j6 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

we learn from the doxographers, of a revolving bright hemi- 
sphere of day and a dark hemisphere of night. Cf. note to 
f r. 48. 

Exultant in surrounding solitude: quoted with literary tact, 
though in a corrupt form, by Marcus Aurelius (XII, 3) : "If 
thou wilt separate, I say, from this ruling faculty the things 
which are attached to it by the impressions of sense, and the 
things of time to come and of time that is past, and wilt make 
thyself like Empedocles' Sphere, 'All round, and in its joyous 
rest reposing.'" 

Fr. 29. Cf. fr. 134, where expressions, in part identical, are used 
apparently of the Divine; and note that below in fr. 31 the 
Sphere is called God. 

Nor form of life-producing member: a touch possible only 
to a free and an austere imagination: Empedocles gazes upon 
man, the naked and the swift, and seizes at once on that which 
most identifies his manhood. 

Fr. 30. Yet after mighty Strife: it will be remembered that Strife 
breaks up and separates the elements in the Sphere. 

Amplest oath: Gr. 7rXaWos opnov, lit. 'broad oath.' Cf. fr. 115. 

Fr. 31. God: the Sphere. "This mixture of all materials is divine 
only in the sense in which antiquity in general sees in the 
world itself the totality of divine beings and powers." Zeller, 
p. 813 ; cf. p. 814. 

Fr. 32. "quod e coniectura scripsi artus iungit bina eleganter ex- 
pressit Martianus Rota sive ingenio sive meliore libro fretus: 
articulis constat semper iunctura duobus." Diels, PPF. 

Fr. 33. Diels (PPF) cites Homer, E,902, and says "e Plut. patet 
Concordiae processum illustrari" — it illustrates the process of 
Love. 

Fr. 34. i. e., like a baker, according to Karsten and Burnet. 

Fr. 35. When down the Vortex : the origin of the vortex is not ex- 
plained in any existing fragment of Empedocles. Tannery 
thinks (p. 312) "the vortex is due to a disturbance of equi- 
librium. .. .the final resultant of the disordered movements 
which Hate occasions in the Sphere." And again (p. 314) : 
"Hate is the principle of division and movement; in con- 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 77 

sequence of its very mobility it works its way naturally into 
the interior of the motionless Sphere, produces an agitation 
and then a movement of revolution. Thereupon Hate is 
thrown off to the circumference where the movement is most 
rapid, and is finally excluded altogether." But cf. Zeller, p. 
784, 787. This chaos, or vortex, caused, according to Tannery 
by Hate, has suggested to some the "xaoyia" f Hesiod and 
the "rudes indigestaque moles" of Ovid; it was, however, an 
accepted tenet of the older schools (cf. The Sivrj in Anaximenes 
and Anaximander, W. A. Heidel, Class. Philology, I, 3., July 
1906). 

The eddying centre of the mass: "the mass" is not in the 
Greek; but is to be understood rather than "the Sphere" — 
which has properly ceased to be in becoming a vortex. 

Oneness: not to be identified with the Sphere, but with the 
"fair order" of fr. 26, as seems clear from the lines that fol- 
low, "and from their mingling," etc. 

Only as willingly: possibly a reference to the attraction of 
like for like. Cf. note to fr. 22. 

Not all blameless : i. e., Hate retreated under protest, differ- 
ing from "blameless Lovingness" in not willingly submitting to 
the "old decree" (see Diels, PPF, and fr. 30) ; although this 
seems, if anything more than a poetic touch, to involve the 
inconsistency of a free will over against the fundamental ne- 
cessity. Such cruxes recall the inconsistencies even in the 
more developed materialism of modern times, which assumes 
the possibility of sense experience and of distinguishing truth 
and error, right and wrong. Cf. fr. 116. 

The circle's utmost bounds : the circumference of the vortex, 
not the Sphere. 

The members: the elements. 

Those mortal things : the elements as constituents of physical 
objects in the perishable world, contrasted with the elements 
as eternal sources of creation. Cf. fr. 17 and 26. "Dagli 
elementi eterni si formano esseri viventi e peribili." Bodrero, 
p. 130. The two states are again contrasted in 
"The erstwhile pure and sheer 
Were mixed," 
below. 

Fr. 36. They: The elements. Cf. preceding fragment. 



yS THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Fr. 37. "cetera elementa duo commemorata fuisse veri simile (cf. 
Lucr. II 1 1 14 sq.), at versus recuperari nequit." Diels, PPF. 
Cf. fr. 109 on sense perception. 

Fr. 38. If the brief examples of "all things we now behold" are to 
correspond to the four elements, one finds nothing representa- 
tive of fire, unless ether be here used, as by Anaxagoras, for 
fire, with reference to the fiery sky (cf. note to fr. 135) and 
to the etymology of the word itself (from atOeiv, 'light up,' 
'blaze') — a sense, indeed, appropriate to the appellative "Titan." 
But this were quite a different sense than is usual in E., with 
whom ether regularly stands for the element air. This, how- 
ever, involves us in another difficulty: "moist air" (vypbs drjp) 
has been already mentioned ; but with Zeller we may interpret 
it as the lower, thicker, misty air (so o."hp in Homer), as op- 
posed to the upper air, the pure ether, "without, however, 
assuming any elemental difference," p. 786. "Moist air" is 
rendered "feuchten Luftkreis" by Diels (FV), and "damp 
mist" by Burnet. I may add that Burnet is evidently wrong 
in affirming that «??p never refers to air in E. : it is used inter- 
changeably with aldrip ('air') in fr. 100 (q. v.) Cf. Stickney, 
notes to Cicero's De Nat. Deorum, I, 44. 

"With Ether, the Titan who binds the globe about :" 
cf. 

"Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all." 

Emerson, Days. 

Fr. 39. The white Ether: "white" is not in the Greek, but is in 
keeping with E.'s "Ether, the all splendorous," the "awful 
heights of Air," the vaulted sky of his imagination. 

As forsooth some tongues, etc.: a gruffness reminding of 
Heraclitus, and of Emerson's line: 

"The brave Empedocles defying fools." 

Fr. 41. E. seems to have conceived the sun as "a luminous image of 
the earth, when the latter was lighted up by the fire of the 
day [i. e., the bright hemisphere] and reflected upon the crys- 
tal vault of heaven." Tannery, p. 317. But cf. Burnet, p. 254, and 
Zeller, p. 789, for slight differences of interpretation. How 
the sun, a mere reflection, was borne along its track in the re- 
volving sky we are left to guess. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 79 

Fr. 42. An anticipation of the modern scientific explanation of solar 
eclipses. 

The silver-eyed: yXavudj-ndos pirns; for the much discussed 
yXavKwirts see the Homeric dictionaries. It refers properly 
not to color but to "brightness and flashing splendor," used 
especially of Athene, of whom the Iliad (A, 200) says, "Seivb 
Si ol offffe (fraavOev." Cf. Schol. on Apoll. Rhod. I. 1280 (quoted 
by Merrill and Riddell, Odys. A, 44) : "8tay\ai<raov<Tiv dvrl rov 
<pwTi£ov<n 77 diaX&fiwovai, odev Kal ^ 'Adrjvd yXavKwiris, Kal 7X171^ ^ 
n6pir) rov 6(()6aKfiov ) irapd to y\ai<raeiv 8 kari \dfiireip. Kal Evpnr/- 
drjs iirl rijs ffeXrjvrjs kxpfaaro yXavKcovis re OTpe0ercu /lmJvij." But 
it is doubtful if E., who speaks of "Selene mild," intended 
here anything stronger than "with eye of silvery sheen." 

y\avKos is used of the willow, the olive, and E. himself uses 
it (fr. 93) of the elder. Diels' "blauaugigen" seems to me in- 
adequate. 

Fr. 43. E. knew the source of the moon's light (cf. fr. 45, 47) ; but 
the moon itself he held to be a disk of frozen air, and one-half 
as far from the earth as the sun ("E. SnfKdaiov air&xw ( T ^ 
y\iop) dirb rijs yijs fjirep t^v aekrivTiv," Plac. II, 31). 

Fr. 44. He darts his beams: with Diels I take the subject to be 'the 
sun' and not 'the earth' (Burnet) ; and "Olympos" is then the 
bright heaven, Tannery's "feu du jour" (see note to fr. 41). 
E. explained the light of the heavenly bodies through his doc- 
trine of emanations, and, accordingly maintained — a correct 
conclusion from incorrect premises — that the sun's light re- 
quires a certain time to reach earth. Cf. Zeller, p. 790. 

Fr. 46. Which round the outmost: probably 'goal is turning,' or 
something of the sort, followed here. The form of the clause 
shows that it served as a simile. 

Fr. 47. Her lord : the sun, see note on fr. 43. 

Fr. 48. E. conceived our earth as surrounded by a hollow globe 
composed of two hemispheres, a lighter of fire, a darker of 
air, whose revolution produces day and night. Cf. Zeller, 
p. 786 ff. This line means only that earth shuts off the light 
of the fiery hemisphere that sinks below the horizon, bearing 
with it its sun (see fr. 41). 



80 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Fr. 50. For authenticity cf. Diels, PPF. I am uncertain what scien- 
tific meaning this line had for Empedocles ; but for the modern 
reader it is at least charming poetry. Burnet (p. 256) says: 
"Wind was explained from the opposite motions of the fiery 
and airy hemispheres. Rain was caused by the compression 
of the Air, which forced any water there might be in it out 
of its pores in the form of drops." 

Fr. 51. And upward, etc.: of fire, which, in E/s thought, had an 
upward, as air a downward (see fr. 54) tendency, innate 
powers apparently not elsewhere explained. The peculiar 
functions attributed by E. to fire led Aristotle {De gen. et corr., 
B 3. 330b 19) to separate it from the other elements of the 
system, an interpretation developed with much ingenuity by 
Bodrero (Chap. II.). 

Fr. 52. Doubtless an allusion to volcanic phenomena, as common in 
Sicily. 

Fr. 53. "It" refers to air. "Met," i. e., with the other elements. 

Fr. 54. See note to fr. 51. 

Fr. 55. "The earth was at first mixed with water, but the in- 
creasing compression caused by the velocity of the world's 
revolution [the Vortex of fr. 35] made the water gush forth." 
Burnet, p. 256. The phrase is not, then, as criticized by Aris- 
totle, mere poetic metaphor. 

Fr. 56. With E. fire has a crystallizing, condensing function. Cf. 
fr. 73- 

Fr- 57-6i- These fragments contain the rude germ of the theory of 
natural selection and the origin of species (but cf. Zeller, p. 
795) 5 they seem to refer to a process of animal genesis during 
the period when Love is increasing in power (i. e., the fourth 
period; see fr. 17) ; fr. 62, on the other hand to another process 
when Hate is increasing (i.e., in the period of the present 
world). Cf. Burnet, p. 261. 

God with god : Gr. Salfiovi Saifiwv, i. e., Love and Hate. 

There seems to be no reason for the conjecture, sometimes 
advanced, that E. is here influenced by the monsters of Baby- 
lonian legend and art. The Greek imagination was long fa* 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 8l 

miliar with centaurs, satyrs, chimaeras, cyclops, hermaphro- 
dites and other "mixed shapes of being." The library of 
Johns Hopkins has recently (1906) been enriched, so a med- 
ical colleague informs me, by a collection (originally from 
Marburg), containing some 936 old volumes on monsters, 
which the curious reader may consult at his leisure for further 
parallels. 

Fr. 62. See notes to fr. 57-61. 

The sundered fire: Gr. Kpivo/xepop irup, lit. 'self-sundering* 
— the fire which "burns beneath the ground" and has the 
"upward zeal." Though E. is speaking here of mankind, 

"Of men and women, the pitied and bewailed," 

he probably considers the process as typical for the whole 
animal kingdom. 

Warm: warm and cold seem to have been important con- 
ditions in E/s system, the former favoring growth, the latter 
inducing decay, old age, sleep, death, in the last instance per- 
haps serving as the occasion for the separation of the elements 
by Hate. The general idea is probably as old as speculation. 

Fr. 63. For 'tis in part in man's : i. e., in part in the male semen. 
E. explained conception as a union of male and female semen, 
each furnishing parts for the formation of offspring. Cf. 

"Aegre admiscetur muliebri semine semen." 

Lucr., IV, 1239. 

In so far as this ancient belief recognizes that both sexes 
furnish the germs of the offspring, it is an anticipation of 
modern embryology. 

Fr. 64. An alternative reading, a little freer : 

"Love-longing comes upon him, waking well 
Old memories, as he gazes." 

Fr. 65. This is, perhaps, as rational as most modern theories. "At 
present we are almost absolutely ignorant concerning the 
causation of sex, though certain observers are inclined to 
suppose that the determining factor must be sought for in the 
ovum." Williams, Obstetrics (1904), p. 143. 



82 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Fr. 66. Cloven meads: surely the labia majora. 

Fr. 68. White pus: Gr. to iriov, not b irvos ('colostrum'), if my 
available lexical information be correct, though the latter is 
probably meant (Burnet). The comparison seems to be — 
however grotesque — between mother's milk (properly colos- 
trum) in the breast enlarging during pregnancy, and the 
matter of a suppurating boil — the teat of the former corre- 
sponding to the "head" of the latter. Colostrum is, however, 
present in the breast after the first few months. 

Fr. 6g. Twice-bearing : i. e., bearing offspring in the seventh and 
tenth month. 

Fr. 70. Sheepskin: used of the membrane conceived as covering 
the "embryo" (foetus?). E. could only have been familiar 
with the membranes which follow the birth of the young. 

Fr. 71. Sun: this is of course here a symbol for the element fire. 

Fr. J2>. Kypris: Aphrodite, Love. 

To speed of fire that she might grow firm: fire has a con- 
densing property. Cf. fr. 56. 

Fr. 74. The subject may be Aphrodite. 

F r - 75-76. Here the bones, the earthen part (in modern science, the 
lime) within some animals are related, quite in the spirit of 
our own physiology, to the shells on the outside of others. 
The turtle's shell, consisting chiefly of keratin, is, however, 
morphologically connected, like horn, finger-nails, etc., with 
the skin. Aristotle (Pneumat. 484a 38) says that E. explained 
fingernails as produced from sinew by hardening. 

Fr. 77-78. Trees were supposed by E. to derive their nourishment 
through their pores from the air, more or less vitalizing ac- 
cording to the mixture — again a suggestion of modern science. 

Fr. 79. In thus assimilating the seeds of the olive tree to the eggs 
laid by birds, E. was probably guided by similarity no less of 
function than of form. 

Fr. 80. Wherefore: Can any one tell me? Prof. McGilvary happily 
suggests it is "because the pomegranate has a very hard 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 83 

thick skin, not admitting air as readily as the thin skin of an 
apple. See fr. 77-78." 

Fr. 82. A doctrine of comparative morphology that has reminded 
many critics of the poet-scientist Goethe. 

Fr. 84. Of horny lantern: the ancients had lanterns made of trans- 
lucent horn, and "horny," though not in the text, must be 
understood here. 

"Emp. conceives the eye as a sort of lantern. The apple 
of the eye contains fire and water enclosed in films, the pores 
of which, alternately arranged for each element, give to the 
emanations of each a free passage. Fire serves for perceiving the 
bright, water for the dark. When the emanations of visible 
things reach the outside of the eye, there pass through the 
pores from within it emanations of its fire and water, and 
from the joint meeting arises vision." Zeller, p. 801. 

"It was an attempt, however inadequate, to explain percep- 
tion by intermediate processes. It was an attempt, moreover, 
which admitted, however reluctantly, the subjective factor, 
thus completing one stage of the journey whose ultimate goal 
is to recognize that our sense-perceptions are anything rather 
than the mere reflections of exterior objective qualities of 
things." Gomperz, p. 235. Cf. Burnet, p. 267. 

Fr. 86. From which : i. e., from these elements. 

Fr. 87. Bolts of love: a metaphor for the uniting power of Aphro- 
dite. Cf. fr. 96. 

Fr. 88. Interesting as an early lesson in a sound theory of optics. 

Fr. 89. Cf. note on fr. 2. 

Fr. 90. Sour sprung for Sour: "went for" (^17) would be a more 
effective rendering, but for the slangy connotations. 

Fr. 92. Diels (FV), following Aristotle, who has preserved us the 
fragment, makes the connection sufficiently clear : "Die Samen- 
mischung bei der Erzeugung von Mauleseln bringt, da zwei 
weiche Stoffe zusammenkommen, eine harte Verbindung zu- 
stande. Denn nur Hohles and Dichtes passt zu einander. 
Dort aber geht es, wie wenn man Zinn und Kupfer mischt." 



84 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Fr. 93. Silvery : See note to f r. 42. 

Fr. 94. Preserved only in Latin (Plut. Qwest, nat., 39). Diels 
(PPF) has thus turned it into Greek: 

"Kal iriKei iv (3ev0ei Trorafiov fieKap e/c cKioevros 
/cat CTnjXaiudeaaiv 6/ius ivopdrai hv avrpois." 

Fr. 95. They : i. e., the eyes. The thought is thus completed by Diels 
(FV), following Simplicius: "ergab sick auch der Unterschied, 
dass einige bei Tag, andere bei Nacht heller sehen." 

Fr. 96. Thus bones are formed of 2 parts earth, 2 parts water, and 
4 parts fire. 

Broad-breasted melting pots: "ben construtti vasi," as Bod- 
rero translates it. 

Glue of Harmony : cf. "bolts of love." 

Fr. 97. Thus completed by Diels (FV), following Aristotle: "hat 
ihre Form daher, dass sie bei der Entstehung der Tiere durch 
eine zuf'dllige Wendung zerbrach." 

Fr. 98. She met: Gr. aweKvpae, a. word, among others, which sug- 
gests in Empedocles' system, an implicit doctrine of chance. 
Cf. fr. 102, 103. Cf. Bodrero, p. 107 ff. 

Ether, the all- splendor ous: an illustration of how E. will 
sometimes emphasize a term, used symbolically to denote an 
element as one of the four-fold roots of all things, by an 
epithet suggestive of that element as it appears in the world 
about us. 

Diels (PPF) paraphrases: "Tellus ad sanguinem efficiendum 
fere pares partes ignis, aquae, aeris arcessit, sed fieri potest ut 
paulo plus terrae aut minus, ut quae pluribus dementis una 
occurrat, admisceatur." 

Fr. 99. A Ueshy sprout : E.'s picturesque definition of the outer ear. 
The inner ear he likens to a bell which sounds as the air 
strikes upon it — again an anticipation of modern science. 

Fr. 100. This fragment (cf. fr. 105) shows some knowledge of the 
motions of the blood, though far enough from the discovery 
of Harvey. Cf. Harvey's own work On the Motion of the 
Heart and Blood in Animals (1628) for the anterior views. 
As a theory of respiration, it is as grotesque as it is ingenious. 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 



85 



The comparison with the clepsydra, though in form of 
Homeric simile, rests, as Burnet points 
out, upon scientific experiment, and is 
doubly significant for its sound physics. 
The following diagram and analysis 
from Burnet (p. 230) will, perhaps, make 
the allusion clear : 

"The water escaped drop by drop 
through a single orifice at a. The top b 
was not altogether open, but was per- 
forated so that the air might exert its 
pressure on the water inside. The in- 
strument was filled by plunging it in 
water upside down, and stopping the 
orifice at a with the finger before taking 
it out again." 

The water's destined bulk : i. e., a cor- 
responding mass of water. 




Fr. 101. All that is left of E.'s theory of scent, 
emanations. 



The mites are the 



Fr. 102. Got : lit, "chanced on" (\e\6yxaffi) . Cf. note on fr. 98. 

Fr. 103. Chance: cf. note on fr. 98. Here, as in some passages 
elsewhere, E. seems to be a hylozoist. Cf. Zeller, p. 802; but 
E. nowhere credits the elements as such, with consciousness, 
unless fr. 109 be so interpreted (but cf. Gomperz, p. 245). 

Fr. 104. The lightest: supply "bodies." 



Fr. 105. In the blood streams : cf. note to fr. 100. 

The blood that stirs, etc. : the verse was often alluded to by 
the ancients (cf. Diels, PPF), and Tertullian seems himself 
to have turned it into Latin in his De Anima (chap. 16) : 

"namque homini sanguis circumcordialis et sensus." 

But E. did not mean here, I think, to exclude some power of 
thought from other parts of the body ; he says "where prevails 
the power," i. e., where it chiefly (judXwra) exists. Cf. Zeller, 
p. 803. 



86 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Fr. 106. Cf. 

"Praeterea gigni pariter cum corpore et una 
crescere sentimus pariterque senescere mentem." 

Lucr., Ill, 445-6. 

"Empedocles hat nicht die Seele aus den Elementen zusam- 
mengesetzt, sondern er hat das, was wir Seelenthatigkeit nen- 
nen, aus der elementarischen Zusammensetzung des Korpers 
erklart, eine vom Korper verschiedene Seele kennt seine Phy- 
sik nicht" — i. e., a soul as distinct from the composition of the 
elements in the body is nowhere found in the On Nature. 
Zeller, p. 802. 

Fr. 107. These: the elements. Cf. note on fr. 106. . 

Fr. 108. "By day" and "by night" have been supplied here from 
references in Simpl. and Philop., quoted by Diels, PPF. 

Fr. 109. Through Earth, etc. : "we think each element with the cor- 
responding element in our body" (Zeller, p. 802), and the 
same holds true of Love and Hate (cf. note on fr. 17). 

Cf. Plotinus : Ov yap av ircoTrore eldev 6(f)6a\/ibs rfKiov ^XtoeiS^s firj 
yeyevn/xivos. Cf. also Goethe : 

"War' nicht das Auge sonnenhaft, 
Die Sonne konnt' es nie erblicken ; 
Lag' nicht in uns des Gottes eig'ne Kraft, 
Wie konnt' uns Gottliches entziicken?" 

Man is the microcosm. 

Fr. no. All these things: perhaps the good thoughts of the master's 
doctrine; E. is here, as elsewhere, addressing Pausanias. 

For of themselves. .. .they grow, etc.: sound psychology, if 
my interpretation just above be correct, and capable of serving 
as the basis for a chapter in the philosophy of living, on the 
practical bearings upon character of right and wrong thinking. 

All things have fixed intent : i. e., consciousness. 

Fr. in. Drugs: Gr. <f>&p[xaKa; possibly "charms" is better, as sug- 
gested to me by a friend. Galen makes E. the founder of the 
Italian school of medicine. Cf. Burnet, p. 215. 

The dominion over human ills, sickness, windstorms, drought 
and death, here promised to Pausanias, was early imputed to 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 87 

Empedocles himself (cf. Introduction) , perhaps, chiefly by vir- 
tue of these lines. 

The might of perished men: Gr. Kara^difiivov (jl4pos 6v8p6s. 
"Spirits of the dead" seems hardly permissible with ptvos 
(though the word is sometimes used of the spirit, the courage 
of man), and would render still more crass the contradiction 
with what E. has elsewhere told us in the On Nature of the 
psychic life. One would conjecture that the fragment belongs 
to the Purifications, but for the fact that it is addressed to 
Pausanias, and not, as the latter, to the citizens of Acragas. 



THE PURIFICATIONS. 

The inconsistency of the religious tenets of this poem with the 
philosophic system of the On Nature is, like the relation between the 
two parts of Parmenides' poem, a commonplace in the history of 
Greek thought; and, though attempts at a reconciliation have been 
made, conservatively by Burnet (p. 271), radically by Bodrero (pas- 
sim), our materials seem too scanty for anything more than in- 
genious speculation. The work evidently owes much to Orphic and 
Pji:hagorean tradition; but there seems no reason for doubting its 
genuineness. 

Fr. 112. The yellow Acragas: The river beside the walls of Agri- 
gentum. 

As god immortal now : an Orphic line runs : 

"Happy and blessed, shalt thou be a god and no longer 
a mortal." 

Cf. Harrison, Proleg. to Study of Greek Religion, p. 589. 

Crowned both with fillets and with Howering wreaths: Em- 
pedocles' passage about the Sicilian cities reminds one of the 
peasant-prophet who went about the populous towns of Gali- 
lee, followed by the multitudes seeking a sign or a healing 
word; but the simplicity of the Jew is more impressive than 
the display of the Greek. 

Fr. 113. I. e., "Why should I boast of my miracles and my following, 
who am a god and so much above mankind?" E., if an 
Orphic (cf. Burnet, p. 213, and his references), has here 



88 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

little of even "the somewhat elaborate and self-conscious hu- 
mility" of his sect 

Fr. 115. With amplest oaths: cf. fr. 30. 

Those far spirits: Gr. Salfioves; Burnet (p. 269) identifies 
these with "the long-lived gods" of the On Nature. 

With slaughter: i. e., bloodshed of animals, no less than of 
fellowmen; it probably refers also to the eating of flesh. Cf. 
fr. 136. 

In offense: in sin, sinfully. 

Thrice ten thousand years: Gr. rpls fivplat <apai, by some 

interpreted as 10,000 years. Cf. Zeller, p. 780. 

Be born through time, etc. : the doctrine of metempsychosis 
in E. is probably Pythagorean in origin, though apparently 
not entirely Pythagorean in form: "Non e specializzata solo a 
certi determinati esseri, ma riguarda tutti gli esseri organici 
e giunge sino agli Dei," according to Bodrero (p. 146). 

For now Air hunts them, etc. : Here we have mention of the 
familiar four elements, and below of Hate, but the realm of 
the Blessed and the curse pronounced upon the spirits seem in- 
compatible with the On Nature. Moreover, something is 
needed after all for metemphychosis besides "the reappearance 
of the same corporeal elements in definite combinations" 
(Burnet, p. 271), though perhaps Empedocles deemed that 
sufficient. Cf. the Buddhistic doctrine of reincarnation and 
retribution. Cf. also Gomperz, p. 249 ff. 

Fr. 116. Charis: Aphrodite. In the On Nature (fr. 35) E. refers 
to the unwillingness also of Hate to submit to the law of ne- 
cessity. 

Fr. 117. Possibly as a punishment for having tasted flesh: "Empe- 
docle ci fa sapere che il suo spirito era gia pervenuto alia sede 
dei beati, ma che cedendo alia tentazione accosto impuri cibi 
agli labbri [cf. fr. 139], e torno ad essere arbusto, pesce, uccello, 
fanciullo e giovinetta." Bodrero, p. 147. 

"So long as man [in the Orphic belief] has not severed 
completely his brotherhood with plants and animals, not real- 
ized the distinctive marks and attributes of his humanity, he 
will say with Empedocles: 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 89 

'Once on a time a youth was I, and I was a maiden, 
A bush, a bird, and a fish with scales that gleam in the 
ocean.' " 

Harrison, Prole g. to Study of Greek Religion, p. 590. 

Fr. 118. This must refer to Empedocles' feelings, as he entered, 
after banishment from heaven, upon his earthly career (cf. fr. 
119). Cf. 

"Inf ans .... 
vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut aequmst 
cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum." 

Lucr., V, 226. 

For other parallels see Munro and Guissani, notes to loc. cit. 

Fr. 119. Cf. note to fr. 118. 

Fr. 121. A joyless land: with fr. 122 and 123 this refers, as I under- 
stand it, to our mundane world itself. 

And Labors burthened with the water-jars: this is a para- 
phrase of the puzzling %pya> 'pevard, which, it has been sug- 
gested to me by Prof. Newbold, "can hardly be anything other 
than the fruitless toil of the water-carriers, representing, if 
the scene be earth, life's disappointments and the vanity of all 
human pursuits." If this interpretation be correct, the figure 
is evidently taken from the conception of the Orphic Hell, 
which, if the literary tradition be reliable, was situated upon 
earth (for water-carriers in Hell, cf. Harrison, Prole g. to 
Study of Greek Religion, Chap. XI, p. 614 ff.) ; but that E. is 
depicting scenes from the Orphic Hell itself may be ques- 
tioned from what is preserved to us of the context : he seems 
throughout these adjacent fragments to be dwelling on the 
earthly abiding place unto which he and others must descend 
from the realm of the blessed. 

But Diels (PPF) : "nee sunt humanae res Huxae (Karsten) 
nee vero foedum morbi genus (Stein), sed agri inundationibus 
vexati" According to this, it might run in English : 

"And slimy floods of wasting waters rise 
And wander," etc. 



Cf. 



"Lightning and Inundation vexed the plains." 

Shelley, Prometheus Unbound, I, 169. 



90 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

Fr. 122. There : i. e., in the joyless land," the "roofed cave," this 
earth. 

Virgin of the Sun: the moon(?). 

The personages that follow are feminine. E. evidently 
imitates the catalogue of Nymphs in II. 2 39: 

"ep9' ap' eqv TXavKT) re, GdXeid re Kv/iodoKrj re" kt\ 

Fr. 125. This refers, perhaps, to the passage from the life of the 
blessed to the (relative) death on this earth, where souls are 
wrapped 

"in unfamiliar tunics of the flesh" (fr. 126.), 
and have a hapless existence. 

Fr. 126. This refers to metempsychosis. 

Fr. 127. The worthiest dwellings : for those who have proceeded in 
their purification; expanded from the context where the orig- 
inal passage is found (in Ael. nat. an., XII, 7., quoted by Diels, 
PPF) : "Xe7« Se /ecu 'E. tt)v apiarqp elvat fieToiKrjaiv tt]v tov 
avOp&irov, el fiep is ?Coiov if \tj£ls avrbv fierayayoi, \eopra ylvee- 
6ai • ef 8£ es (pvrov, 8&<pvr)v." E. conceived the plants as having 
souls, a fancy not confined to antiquity. 

Fr. 128. A Golden Age seems incompatible with the biology of the 
On Nature, but cf. Burnet (p. 271), who thinks it to be re- 
ferred to the time when Hate was just beginning to separate 
the elements. 

Kydoimos: personification of uproar, as in battle. 

Unmixed blood: the figure is from unmixed wine, which, 
as such, is thick and dark. 

Fr. 129. "Similiter mentis infinitam vim (philosophi scilicet non vatis) 
Parmenides praedicat fr. 2 \evaae 8' o/xus aireovra. vowi xapeovra 
pepatws kt\. unde apparet cur nonnulli Parmenidem hie respici 
arbitrati sunt, nee dubium cur Pythagorae quater redivivi 
mentio ["a reference to Pythagoras, four times returned to 
life"] facta sit." Diels, PPF. But Burnet (p. 236), conjec- 
turing that E. is still speaking of the Golden Age, thinks the 
"supreme man" is Orpheus. 

In ten or twenty human ages: cf. paraphrase of Diels 
(PPF) : "ubi summa vi mentem intenderat, facile singula quae- 



THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 91 

cumque sive decern sive viginti hominum saeculis fiebant per- 
spicere solebat." 

Fr. 132. Bodrero in his attempt to interpret harmoniously all the 
thoughts of Empedocles explains this passage with reference 
to what has gone before in the On Nature as follows : "Felice 
colui che ha una cosi perfetta composizione di elementi da 
poter comprendere la natura degli Dei; misero chi per la 
poverta delle proprie risorse, segue le credenze superstiziose 
e comuni" (p. 159). 

Fr. 134. Cf. fr. 29 and note. Burnet thinks that E. is here too 
speaking of the Sphere; but the last lines seem out of place 
in such a connection, even though we recall that E. has vaguely 
named the Sphere "God" (fr. 31). 

Fr. 135. Broad-ruling Ether, etc. : "den weithin herrschenden Feuer- 
aether und den unermesslichen Himmelsglanz." Diels, FV. 
Cf. note to fr. 38. 

Din of slaughter: killing of animals. Cf. fr. 137 and 115. 
The reader need hardly be reminded of the Orphic interdict 
against eating animal food. 

Fr. 138. "As our philosopher placed life and soul in the blood [cf. 
fr. 105], it was not unnatural for him to speak of 'drawing the 
soul.' " Diels, PPF. The passage seems to refer either to 
the draining or scooping up into a bronze vessel of the blood 
of slaughtered animals, or to cutting their throats with a 
sacrificial knife of bronze. 

Fr. 139. Cf. note on fr. 117. 

Fr. 140. For the probable reason of this injunction cf. fr. 127. 

Fr. 141. A familiar Pythagorean commandment, on the meaning of 
which scholars have offered a variety of suggestions. Bodrero 
(p .149) and others connect it with the doctrine of metem- 
psychosis (cf. fr. 139, 127) ; Burnet (p. 104) well compares it 
(and kindred Pythagorean rules) to the bizarre taboos of 
savages. Possibly there was some fancied association, based 
on shape, with the egg (as E. likened olives to eggs in fr. 79), 
which, as may be gathered from Plutarch, was held by Orphics 
and Pythagoreans to be taboo, perhaps as being the principle 



92 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 

of life (cf. Harrison, Prole g. to Study of Greek Religion, p. 
628). 

Fr. 142. "etiam sensus incertus, utrum Iovis et Hecates regna (cf. 
fr. 135, 2?) opponantur an quattuor elementa, unde exclusus 
sit scelestus (cf. fr. 115, 9) " Diels, PPF. 

Fr. 143. Scooping : Gr. rafiovr, 'cutting,' i. e., water for purposes of 
ceremonial lustration (?), for which bronze vessels were regu- 
larly employed. 

Fr. 144. George Herbert uses the same figure somewhere in his 
poems. 

Fr. 145. Evil doings: presumably such "sin" as referred to above 
which doom souls to 

"be born through time 
In various shapes of mortal kind which change 
Ever and ever paths of troublous life." Fr. 115. 

Fr. 146-7. The last words left us of the all too few on the trans- 
migration of the soul. 

Fr. 148. This does not refer to "mother earth," but to the human 
body, "to ttJi ypvxrjt- irepiKeifievop cufia" (Plut. Ouaest. Conv'xv. 
V 8, 2, p. 683 E [post fr. 80], quoted by Diels, PPF). 

Fr. 149. Of air. 

Fr. 151. Of Aphrodite. 

Fr. 152. Preserved in Aristotle's Poetics. 21, quoted by Diels, PPF. 

Fr. 153. Gr. /Sav/3w, a very rare word : "cyjfiaivet Se real noi\lav a>s Trap* 
'E/nredoKXei." Hesych., quoted by Diels, PPF. 

Fr. 153a. Diels (FV) translates the doxographer: "In sieben mal 
sieben Tagen wird der Embryo (seiner GUederung nach) 
durchgebildet." 



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